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THE WATER-BABIES 


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MAYNARD’S ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES.— No. 206*207 


THE WATER-BABIES 

A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 

V 

CHARLES KINGSLEY 


EDITED AND ABRIDGED 

BY 

EDNA H. TURPIN 



MAYNARD, MERRILL, &. CO. 

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A Complete Course in the Study of English. 

Spelling, Language, Grammar, Composition, Literature^ 


Reed’s Word Lessons— A Complete Speller. 

Reed’s Introductory Language Work. 

Reed & Kellogg’s Graded Lessons in English. 

Reed & Kellogg’s Higher Lessons in English. 

Reed & Kellogg’s One-Book Course in English. 

Kellogg & Reed’s Word Building. 

Kellogg & Reed’s The English Language, 

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Kellogg’s Text-Book on English Literature* 

In the preparation of this series the authors have had one object 
clearly in view — to so develop the study of the English language as 
to present a complete, progressive course, from the Spelling-Book to 
the study of English Literature. The troublesome contradictions 
which arise in using books arranged by different authors on these 
subjects, and which require much time for explanation in the school- 
room, will be avoided by the use of the above “ Complete Course.” 

Teachers are earnestly invited to examine these books. 

Maynard, Merrill, & Co., Publishers, 

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Copyright, 1898, by Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


Charles Kingsley, clergyman, politician, poet, and natural- 
ist, was bom atHolne, in Devonshire, England, June 12, 1819. 
After attending preparatory schools, he went to Magdalene 
College, Cambridge, where he obtained a scholarship in his 
first year. July 6, 1839, on a visit to Oxfordshire he met his 
future wife. Miss Fanny Grenfell. “ That,” he said, “was 
my real wedding day.” After taking his degree at Cambridge, 
he went to Eversley as curate ; he was afterward made rector 
of that parish, and there thirty-three years of his busy, happy 
life were spent. 

In 1848 he published his first book. The Sainfs IVagedTf, 
a dramatization of the legend of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. 
About this time he was led by conscientious motives (o resign 
his office of clerk in orders in his father’s parisli, and he turned 
to literature to meet increasing expenses and decreased income. 
In the next ten years his best novels were published. Yeast, 
Alton Locke, Hypatia, Westward Ho! and Two Years Ago. 
His writings, however, were inspired by other than sordid 
motives. Yeast and Alton Locke, written with the ardor of 
youthful conviction, express liis sympathy with the movement 
of Christian Socialism of which Maurice was leader. Hypatia, 
an historical romance of Egypt in the fifth century, and 
Westward Ho! the scene of which is laid in the Elizabethan 
times, are energetic in action and brilliant in description, and, 
despite anachronisms, rank among the finest English historical 
novels. 

Kingsley was appointed Professor of Modern Languages at 
Cambridge in 1860. In the spring of 1862 Water-Bahies was 
written in fulfillment of his promise “ to make a book ” for his 
little son, Arthur. His other child-classic, The Heroes, SiCoWc- 
tion of Greek fairy tales, had been published some years before. 
Writing of Water-Babies to Maurice, Kingsley said : “I have 
tried in all sorts of queer ways to make children and grown 
folks divine that there is a quite miraculous and divine ele- 
ment underlying all physical nature.” The exquisite fairy 

3 


4 


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


tale is full of scientific and moral truth. For instance, “ the 
fact of the natural selection of species is forcibly taught ; 
Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid represents the universal providence 
of God. which is but another form of divine love, the motive 
if not the a-’ency of the various transformations described.” 

In 1873 Kingsley gave up his canonry at Chester for a 
vacant stall at Westminster Abbey. Six months of the next 
year were spent in America. While in Colorado he had a 
severe illness from which he never entirely recovered, and he 
died of pneumonia at Eversley, January 23, 1875. A grave in 
Westminster Abbey was tendered for 1pm, but those who knew 
the desires of his heart declined it, and his loving villagers 
bore him to his rest in Eversley churchyard. 

Kingsley is often called “the Apostle of Muscular Chris- 
tianity.” He had a high appreciation of the height which 
Christian manhood should attain, and he insisted strenuously 
on the duty of man to maintain a sound mind in a sound body. 
He himself was a splendid specimen of manhood, physical, 
mental, spiritual. Maurice said that of all men he had ever 
known Kingsley was the best son, the best father, the best 
husband, the best friend, and the best parish priest. Instead 
of feeling that by exalted talents he was exempt from humble 
duties he was most scrupulous in their performance. He had 
a life-long sympathy with the lowly and suffering. One of 
his best writings is a sermon on the Message of tlie Church to 
the Working Man. 

All his writings are pure and manly. As a novelist his 
chief power lies in his descriptive talent. There are in the 
whole range of English literature few finer word-pictures than 
his descriptions of English, South American, and Egyptian 
scenery. His pictures of foreign deserts and tropical forests 
are as vivid as those of his own familiar North Devon scenes. 
“Kingsley had imagination, feeling, some insight, a great 
affection for man and nature, a true interest in things as 
they are and ought to be— above all, as they ought to be ! ” — 
Henley. 


Note.— T he text has been abridged by the omission of digressions deal- 
ing with scientific matters beyond the range of young people, and the 
story thereby is made more suitable for supplementary reading. The 
author’s language is unchanged and the thread of the narrative unbroken. 


THE WATER-BABIES 


CHAPTER I 

1. Once upon a time there was a little chimney- 
sweep/ and his name was Tom. That is a short 
name, and you have heard it before, so you will not 
have much trouble in remembering it. He lived 
in a great town in the Horth country,^ where there 
were plenty of chimneys to sweep, and plenty of 
money for Tom to earn and his master to spend. 
He could not read nor write, and did not care to 
do either; and he never washed himself, for there 
was no water up the court where he lived. He 
had never been taught to say his prayers. He 
never had heard of God, or of Christ, except in 
words which you never have heard, and which it 
would have been well if he had never heard. 

2. He cried half his time, and laughed the other 
half. He cried when he had to climb the dark 


> Chimney-sweep : A boy who climbs chimneys and sweeps out the 
soot. 

2 North country : The north of England. 


6 


THE WATER-BABIES 


flues, rubbing his poor knees and elbows raw; and 
when the soot got into his eyes, which it did every 
day in the week; and when his master beat him, 
which he did every day in the week; and when he 
had not enough to eat, which happened every day 
in the week likewise. And he laughed the other 
half of the day, when he was tossing halfpennies 
with the other boys, or playing leap-frog over the 
posts, or bowling stones at the horses’ legs as 
they trotted by, which last was excellent fun, 
when there was a wall at hand behind which to 
hide. 

3. As for chimney-sweeping, and being hungry, 
and being beaten, he took all that for the way of 
the world, like the rain and snow and thunder, 
and stood manfully with his back to it till it was 
over, as his old donkey did to a hailstorm; and 
then shook his ears and was as jolly as ever; and 
thought of the fine times coming, when he would 
be a man, and a master sweep, and sit in the pub- 
lic-house with a quart of beer and a long pipe, and 
play cards for silver money, and wear velveteens 
and ankle- jacks, and keep a white bull-dog with one 
gray ear, and carry her puppies in his pocket, just 
like a man. 

4. And he would have apprentices, one, two, three, 
if he could. How he would bully them, and 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


1 


knock them about, just as his master did to him; 
and make them carry home the soot sacks, while 
he rode before them on his donkey, with a pipe in 
his mouth and a flower in his button-hole, like a 
king at the head of his army. Yes, there were 
good times coming; and, when his master let him 
have a pull at the leavings of his beer, Tom was 
the j oiliest boy in the whole town. 

5. One day a smart little groom rode into the 
court where Tom lived. Tom was just hiding be- 
hind a wall, to heave half a brick at his horse’s legs, 
as is the custom of that country when they welcome 
strangers; but the groom saw him, and halloed to 
him to know where Mr. Grimes, the chimney- 
sweep, lived. ^Yow, Mr. Grimes was Tom’s own 
master, and Tom was a good man of business, and 
always civil to customers, so he put the half- 
brick down quietly behind the wall, and proceeded 
to take orders. Mr. Grimes was to come up next 
morning to Sir John Harthover’s, at the Place, for 
his old chimney-sweep was gone to prison, and the 
chimneys wanted sweeping. 

6. So Tom and his master set out; Grimes rode 
the donkey in front, and Tom and the brushes 
walked behind; out of the court and up the street, 
past the closed window shutters, and the winking, 
weary policeman, and the roofs all shining in the 


8 


THE WATER-BABIES 


gray dawn. They passed through the pitmen’s ® 
village, all shut up and silent now, and through the 
turnpike; and then they were out in the real coun- 
try, and plodding along the black dusty road, 
between black slag walls, with no sound but the 
groaning and thumping of the pit-engine in the 
next field. But soon the road grew white, and the 
walls likewise; and at the wall’s foot grew long 
grass and gay flowers, all drenched with dew; and 
instead of the groaning of the pit-engine, they 
heard the skylark saying his matins * high up in the 
air, and the pit-bird warbling in the sedges, as he 
had warbled all night long. 

7 . All else was silent. For old Mrs. Earth was 
still fast asleep; and, like many pretty people, she 
looked still prettier asleep than awake. The great 
elm trees in the gold-green meadows were fast 
asleep above, and the cows fast asleep beneath 
them; nay, the few clouds which were about were 
fast asleep likewise, and so tired that they had lain 
down on the earth to rest, in long white flakes and 
bars, among the stems of the elm trees, and along 
the tops of the alders by the stream, waiting for 
the sun to bid them rise and go about their day’s 
business in the clear blue overhead. 


3 Pitmen : Miners. 
i Matins : Morning prayers or songs. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


9 


8. On they went; and Tom looked, and looked, 
for he had never been so far in the country before; 
and longed to get over a gate, and pick buttercups, 
and look for birds’ nests in the hedge; hut Mr. 
Grimes was a man of business, and would not have 
heard of that. 

9. Soon they came up with a poor Irishwoman, 
trudging along with a bundle at her back. She 
had a gray shawl over her head, and a crimson 
madder ® petticoat ; so you may be sure she came 
from Galway.® She had neither shoes nor stock- 
ings, and limped along as if she were tired and foot- 
sore ; but she was a very tall handsome woman, with 
bright gray eyes, and heavy black hair hanging 
about her cheeks. And she took Mr. Grimes’ 
fancy so much, that when he came alongside he 
called out to her: 

10. This is a hard road for a gradely foot like 
that. Will ye up, lass, and ride behind me? ” 

But, perhaps, she did not admire Mr. Grimes’ 
look and voice ; for she answered quietly : 

'Noy thank you: I’d sooner walk with your little 
lad here.” 

You may please yourself,” growled Grimes, 
and went on smoking. 


® Madder ; Red. 

« Galway : A maritime county of Ireland, 
7 Gradely : Neat, nice. 


10 


THE WATER-BABIES 


11. So she walked beside Tom, and talked to 
him, and asked him where he lived, and what he 
knew, and all about himself, till Tom thought he 
had never met such a pleasant-spoken woman. 
And she asked him, at last, whether he said his 
prayers! and seemed sad when he told her that he 
knew no prayers to say. 

Then he asked her where she lived, and she said 
far away by the sea. And Tom asked her about 
the sea; and she told him how it rolled and roared 
over the rocks in winter nights, and lay still in the 
bright summer days, for the children to bathe and 
play in it; and many a story more, till Tom longed 
to go and see the sea, and bathe in it likewise. 

12. At last, at the bottom of a hill, they came 
to a spring. And there Grimes stopped, and 
looked; and Tom looked too. Tom was wondering 
whether anything lived in that dark cave, and 
came out at night to fly in the meadows. But 
Grimes was not wondering at all. Without a 
word, he got off his donkey, and clambered over 
the low road wall, and knelt down, and began 
dipping his ugly head into the spring — and very 
dirty he made it. 

13. Tom was picking the flowers as fast as he 
could. The Irishwoman helped him, and showed 
him how to tie them up; and a very pretty nose- 


A tAlRY TALE FOR A LANL-BABY 11 

gay they made between them. But when he saw 
Grimes actually wash, he stopped,, quite astonished; 
and when Grimes had finished, and began shaking 
his ears to dry them, he said: 

Why, master, I never saw you do that before.’’ 

Xor will again, most likely. ’Twasn’t for 
cleanliness I did it, but for coolness. I’d be 
ashamed to want washing every week or so, like 
any smutty collier lad.” ® 

14. I wish I might go and dip my head in,” 
said poor little Tom. It must be as good as put- 
ting it under the town pump; and there is no 
beadle ® here to drive a chap away.” 

Thou come along,” said Grimes; what dost 
want with washing thyself? Thou did not drink 
half a gallon of beer last night, like me.” 

I don’t care for you,” said naughty Tom, and 
ran down to the stream, and began washing his face. 

15. Grimes was very sulky, because the woman 
preferred Tom’s company to his; so he dashed at 
him with horrid words, and tore him up from his 
knees, and began beating him. But Tom was 
accustomed to that, and got his head safe between 
Mr. Grimes’ legs, and kicked his shins with all his 
might. 


8 Collier lad : One who digs coal or makes charcoal. 

9 Beadle: A parish officer who keeps order. 


12 


The water-babIeS 


Are you not ashamed of yourself, Thomas 
Grimes? ’’ cried the Irishwoman over the wall. 

16. Grimes looked up, startled at her knoAving 
his name; but all he answered Avas, N'o, nor never 
was yet; ’’ and Avent on beating Tom. 

True for you. If you ever had been ashamed 
of yourself, you would have gone over into Ven- 
dale long ago.’’ 

What do you know about Yendale? ” shouted 
Grimes; but he left off beating Tom. 

17. I know about Yendale, and about you, 
too. I know, for instance, Avhat happened in Al- 
dermire Copse, by night, two years ago come 
Martinmas.” 

You do? ” shouted Grimes; and leaving Tom, 
he climbed up over the wall, and faced the woman. 
Tom thought he Avas going to strike her; but she 
looked him too full and fierce in the face for that. 

^^Yes; I Avas there,” said the Irishwoman 
quietly. 

You are no Irishwoman, by your speech,” said 
Grimes, after many bad Avords. 

hTever mind who I am. I saw what I saw; 
and if you strike that boy again, I can tell what 
I know.” 


Martinmas (St. Martin and mass) : The feast of St. Martin, the 
11th of November. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


13 


18. Grimes seemed quite cowed, and got on liis 
donkey without another word. 

Stop! ’’ said the Irishwoman. I have one 
more word for you both ; for you will both see me 
again before all is over. Those that wish to be 
clean, clean they will be; and those that wish to be 
foul, foul they will be. Kemember.^^ 

And she turned away, and through a gate into 
the meadow. Grimes stood still a moment, like 
a man who had been stunned. Then he rushed 
after her, shouting, You come back.’’ But when 
he got into the meadow, the woman was not there. 

19. Had she hidden away? There was no place 
to hide in. But Grimes looked about, and Tom 
also, for he was as puzzled as Grimes himself at her 
disappearing so suddenly; but look where they 
would, she was not there. 

Grimes came back again, as silent as a post, for 
he was a little frightened; and, getting on his don- 
key, filled a fresh pipe, and smoked away, leaving 
Tom in peace. 

And now they had gone three miles and more, 
and came to Sir John’s lodge-gates. 

20. Tom and his master did not go in through 
the great iron gates, as if they had been Dukes or 
Bishops, but round the back way, and a very long 
way round it was ; and into a little back-door, where 


14 


THE WATER-BABIES 


the ash-boy let them in, yawning horribly; and 
then in a passage the housekeeper met them, in 
such a flowered chintz dressing-gown, that Tom 
mistook her for my lady herself, and she gave 
Grimes solemn orders about You will take care 
of this, and take care of that,’’ as if he was going 
up the chimneys, and not Tom. 

21. And Grimes listened, and said every now 
and then, under his voice, You’ll mind that, 
you little beggar? ” and Tom did mind, all at least 
that he could. And then the housekeeper turned 
them into a grand room, all covered up in sheets 
of brown paper, and bade them begin, in a lofty 
and tremendous voice; and so after a whimper 
or two, and a kick from his master, into the 
grate Tom went, and up the chimney, while a 
housemaid stayed in the room to watch the furni- 
ture; to whom Mr. Grimes paid many playful and 
chivalrous compliments, but met with very slight 
encouragement in return. 

22. How many chimneys Tom swept I cannot 
say; but he swept so many that he got quite tired, 
and puzzled too, for they were not like the town 
flues to which he was accustomed, but such as you 
would find — if you would only get up them and 
look, which perhaps you would not like to do — in 
old country-houses, large and crooked chimneys. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


15 


which had been altered again and again, till they 
ran one into another. So Tom fairly lost his way 
in them; not that he cared much for that, though 
he was in pitchy darkness, for he was as much at 
home in a chimney as a mole is underground; but 
at last, coming down as he thought the right chim- 
ney, he came down the wrong one, and found him- 
self standing on the hearthrug in a room the like 
of which he had never seen before. 

23. Tom had never seen the like. He had never 
been in gentlefolks’ rooms but when the carpets 
were all up, and the curtains down, and the fur- 
niture huddled together under a cloth, and the 
pictures covered with aprons and dusters; and he 
had often enough wondered what the rooms were 
like when they were all ready for the quality to 
sit in. And now he saw, and he thought the sight 
very pretty. 

24. The room was all dressed in white, — white 
window-curtains, white bed-curtains, white furni- 
ture, and white walls, with just a few lines of pink 
here and there. The carpet was all over gay little 
flowers; and the walls were hung with pictures in 
gilt frames, which amused Tom very much. There 
were pictures of ladies and gentlemen, and pictures 
of horses and dogs. The horses he liked; but the 
dogs he did not care for much, for there were no 


16 


THE WATER-BABIES 


bull-dogs among them, not even a terrier. But 
the two pictures which took his fancy most were, 
one a man in long garments, with little children 
and their mothers round him, who was laying his 
hand upon the children’s heads. That was a very 
pretty picture, Tom thought, to hang in a lady’s 
room. For he could see that it was a lady’s room 
by the dresses which lay about. 

25. The other picture was that of a man nailed 
to a cross, which surprised Tom much. He fan- 
cied that he had seen something like it in a shop- 
window. But why was it there? Poor man,” 
thought Tom, and he looks so kind and quiet. 
But why should the lady have such a sad picture 
as that in her room ? Perhaps it was some kinsman 
of hers, who had been murdered by the savages in 
foreign parts, and she kept it there for a remem- 
brance.” And Tom felt sad, and awed, and turned 
to look at something else. 

26. The next thing he saw, and that too puzzled 
him, was a washing-stand, with ewers and basins, 
and soap and brushes, and towels, and a large bath 
full of clean water — what a heap of things all for 
washing! She must be a very dirty lady,” 
thought Tom, by my master’s rule, to want as 
much scrubbing as all that. But she must be very 
cunning to put the dirt out of the way so well after- 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


17 


wards, for I donH see a speck about the room, not 
even on the very towels.’^ 

27. And then, looking toward the bed, he saw 
that dirty lady, and held his breath with astonish- 
ment. 

Under the snow-white coverlet, upon the snow- 
white pillow, lay the most beautiful little girl that 
Tom had ever seen. Her cheeks were almost as 
white as the pillow, and her hair was like threads 
of gold spread all about over the bed. She might 
have been as old as Tom, or maybe a year or two 
older; but Tom did not think of that. He thought 
only of her delicate skin and golden hair, and won- 
dered whether she was a real live person, or one 
of the wax dolls he had seen in the shops. But 
when he saw her breathe, he made up his mind 
that she was alive, and stood staring at her, as if 
she had been an angel out of heaven. 

28. Ho. She cannot be dirty. She never could 
have been dirty, thought Tom to himself. And 
then he thought, And are all people like that 
when they are washed ? And he looked at his 
own wrist, and tried to rub the soot off, and won- 
dered whether it ever would come off. Certainly 
I should look much prettier then, if I greAV at all 
like her.’’ 

29. And looking round, he suddenly saw, stand- 


18 


THE WATER-BABIES 


ing close to him, a little ugly, black, ragged figure, 
with bleared eyes and grinning white teeth. He 
turned on it angrily. What (fid such a little black 
ape want in that sweet young lady’s room? And 
behold it was himself, reflected in a great mirror 
the like of which Tom had never seen before. 

30. And Tom, for the first time in his life, found 
out that he was dirty; and burst into tears with 
shame and anger ; and turned to sneak up the chim- 
ney again and hide; and upset the fender and 
threw the fire-irons down, with a noise as of ten 
thousand tin kettles tied to ten thousand mad dogs’ 
tails. 

31. Up jumped the little white lady in her bed, 
and, seeing Tom, screamed as shrill as any peacock. 
In rushed a stout old nurse from the next room, 
and seeing Tom likewise, made up her mind that 
he had come to rob, plunder, destroy, and burn; 
and dashed at him, as he lay over the fender, so 
fast that she caught him by the jacket. 

32. But she did not hold him. Tom had been 
in a policeman’s hands many a time, and out of 
them too, what is more; and he would have been 
ashamed to face his friends forever if he had been 
stupid enough to be caught by an old woman; so 
he doubled under the good lady’s arm, across the 
room, and out of the window in a moment. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


19 


33. All under the window spread a tree, with 
great leaves and sweet white flowers, almost as big 
as his head. It was a magnolia, I suppose; but 
Tom knew nothing about that, and cared less; for 
down the tree he went, like a cat, and across the 
garden lawn, and over the iron railings, and up 
the park towards the wood, leaving the old nurse 
to scream murder and Are at the window. 

34. Never was there heard at Hall Place — not 
even when the fox was killed in the conservatory, 
among acres of broken glass, and tons of smashed 
flower-pots — such a noise, row, and total contempt 
of dignity, repose, and order, as that day, when 
Grimes, the gardener, the groom, the dairymaid. Sir 
John, the steward, the plowman, the keeper, and 
the Irishwoman, all ran up the park, shouting 

Stop thief, in the belief that Tom had at least 
a thousand pounds’ worth of jewels in his empty 
pockets; and the very magpies and jays fol- 
lowed Tom up, screaking and screaming, as if 
he were a hunted fox, beginning to droop his 
brush. 

35. Tom, of course, made for the woods. He 
had never been in a wood in his life; but he was 
sharp enough to know that he might hide in a bush, 
or swarm up a tree, and, altogether, had more 
chance there than in the open. If he had not 


20 


THE WATER-BABIES 


known that, he would have been foolisher than a 
mouse or a minnow. 

36. But when he got into the wood, he found it 
a very different sort of place from what he had 
fancied. He pushed into a thick cover of rhodo- 
dendrons, and found himself at once caught in a 
trap. The boughs laid hold of his legs and arms, 
poked him in his face and his stomach, made him 
shut his eyes tight (though that was no great loss, 
for he could not see at best a yard before his nose) ; 
and when he got through the rhododendrons, the 
hassock-grass and sedges tumbled him over, and 
cut his poor little fingers afterwards most spite- 
fully; the birches birched him as soundly as if he 
had been a nobleman at Eton/^ and over the face 
too (which is not fair swishing, as all brave boys 
will agree) ; and the lawyers tripped him up, and 
tore his shins as if they had sharks’ teeth — which 
lawyers are likely enough to have. 

37. must get out of this,” thought Tom, or 
I shall stay here till somebody comes to help me 
— which is just what I don’t want.” 

But how to get out was the difficult matter. 
And indeed I don’t think he would ever have got 


Hassock-grass : Coarse grass growing in large tufts. 

Eton : A famous English boys’ school. 

13 Lawyers: Thorny brambles ; in the nezt line but one it means men 
of legal profession. 


A FAIRY TALE EOR A LAND-BABY 


21 


out at all, but have stayed there till the cock-robins 
covered him with leaves, if he had not suddenly 
run his head against a wall. 

38. 'Now running your head against a wall is 
not pleasant, especially if it is a loose wall, with 
the stones all set on edge, and a sharp-cornered 
one hits you between the eyes and makes you see 
all manner of beautiful stars. The stars are very 
beautiful, certainly; but unfortunately they go in 
the twenty-thousandth part of a split second, and 
the pain wdiich comes after them does not. And 
so Tom hurt his head; but he was a brave boy, and 
did not mind that a penny. He guessed that over 
the wall the cover would end; and up it he went, 
and over like a squirrel. 

39. And there he was, out on the great grouse- 
moors, which the country folk called Harthover 
Fell — heather and bog and rock, stretching away 
and up, up to the very sky. 

How, Tom was a cunning little fellow — as cun- 
ning as an old Exmoor stag. Why not? Though 
he was but ten years old, he had lived longer than 
most stags, and had more wits to start with into the 
bargain. 

40. He knew as well as a stag that if he backed 

14 Fell : A rocky hill. 

16 Exmoor : A forest in Somerset and Devon in which a few red 
deer are still found. 


22 


THE WATEE-BABIES 


he might throw the hounds out. So the first thing 
he did when he was over the wall was to make the 
neatest double sharp to his right, and run along 
under the wall for nearly half a mile. 

41. Whereby Sir John, and the keeper, and the 
steward, and the gardener, and the plowman, 
and the dairymaid, and all the hue-and-cry to- 
gether, went on ahead half a mile in the very oppo- 
site direction, and inside the wall, leaving him a 
mile off on the outside; while Tom heard their 
shouts die away in the woods and chuckled to him- 
self merrily. 

At last he came to a dip in the land, and went 
to the bottom of it, and then he turned bravely 
away from the wall and up the moor; for he knew 
that he had put a hill between him and his ene- 
mies, and could go on without their seeing him. 

42. So he went on and on, till his head spun 
round with the heat, and he thought he heard 
church-bells ringing, a long way off. 

Ah ! ’’ he thought, where there is a church 
there will be houses and people; and, perhaps, 
someone will give me a bit and a sup.” So he set 
off again, to look for the church; for he was sure 
that he heard the bells quite plain. 

43. And in a minute more, when he looked 


Hue-and-cry ; Loud outcry raised in pursuing a criminal. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 23 

round, he stopped again, and said, Why, what 
a big place the world is! 

And so it Avas ; for, from the top of the mountain 
he could see — what could he not see? 

44. Behind him, far below, was Harthover, and 
the dark woods, and the shining salmon river; and 
on his left, far below, was the town, and the smok- 
ing chimneys of the collieries; and far, far away, 
the river widened to the shining sea; and little 
white specks, which were ships, lay on its bosom. 
Before him lay, spread out like a map, great plains, 
and farms, and villages, amid dark knots of trees. 
They all seemed at his very feet; but he had sense 
to see that they were long miles away. 

45. And to his right rose moor after moor, hill 
after hill, till they faded away, blue into blue sky. 
But between him and those moors, and really at 
his very feet, lay something, to which, as soon as 
Tom saw it, he determined to go, for that was the 
place for him. 

A deep, deep green and rocky valley, very 
narrow, and filled with Avood; hut through the 
wood, hundreds of feet below him, he could see 
a clear stream glance. Oh, if he could but get 
down to that stream! Then, by the stream, he 
saw the roof of a little cottage, and a little garden 


CQjUeries : Coftl mines, 


24 


THE WATER-BABIES 


set out in squares and beds. And there was a tiny 
little red thing moving in the garden, no bigger 
than a fly. As Tom looked down, he saw that it 
was a woman in a red petticoat. 

46. Ah! perhaps she would give him something 
to eat. And there were the church-bells ringing 
again. Surely there must be a village down there. 
Well, nobody would know him or what had hap- 
pened at the Place. The news could not have got 
there yet, even if Sir John had set all the police- 
men in the county after him; and he could get 
down there in five minutes. 

47. Tom was right about the hue-and-cry not 
having got thither; for he had come, without know- 
ing it, the best part of ten miles from Harthover; 
but he was wrong about getting down in five min- 
utes, for the cottage was more than a mile ofi, and 
a good thousand feet below. 

48. However, down he went, like a brave little 
man as he was, though he was very footsore, and 
tired, and hungry, and thirsty; while the church- 
bells rang so loud, he began to think that they 
must be inside his own head, and the river chimed 
and tinkled far below; and this was the song which 
it sang: 

Clear and cool, clear and cool, 

By laughing shallow, and dreaming pool ; 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


25 


Cool and clear, cool and clear, 

By shining shingle, and foaming weir ; 

Under the crag where the ouzel sings, 

And the ivied wall where the church-bell rings, 
Undefiled, for the undefiled ; 

Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child. 

Dank and foul, dank and foul. 

By the smoky town in its murky cowl ; 

Foul and dank, foul and dank, 

By wharf and sewer and slimy bank ; 

Darker and darker the farther I go, 

Baser and baser the richer I grow ; 

Who dare sport with the sin-defiled ? 

Shrink from me, turn from me, mother and child. 

Strong and free, strong and free. 

The floodgates are open, away to the sea, 

Free and strong, free and strong. 

Cleansing my streams as I hurry along. 

To the golden sands, and the leaping bar. 

And the taintless tide that awaits me afar. 

As I lose myself in the infinite main, 

Like a soul that has sinned and is pardoned again. 
Undefiled, for the undefiled ; 

Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child. 

So Tom went down; and all the while he never 
saw the Irishwoman going down behind him. 


CHAPTEK II 

1. A MILE off, and a thousand feet down. 

So Tom found it; though it seemed as if he 
could have chucked a pebble on to the back of the 
woman in the red petticoat who was weeding in 


26 


THE WATEE-BA.BIES 


the garden, or even across the dale to the rocks be- 
yond. For the bottom of the valley was just one 
field broad, and on the other side ran the stream; 
and above it, gray crag, gray down, gray stair, gray 
moor walled up to heaven. 

2. Down Tom went, by stock and stone, sedge 
and ledge, bush and rush, as if he had been born a 
jolly little black ape, with four hands instead of 
two. 

And all the while he never saw the Irishwoman 
coming down behind him. 

3. At last he got to the bottom. But, behold, 
it was not the bottom — as people usually find when 
they are coming down a mountain. For at the 
foot of the crag were heaps and heaps of fallen 
limestone of every size from that of your head to 
that of a stage-wagon, with holes between them 
full of sweet heath-fern; and before Tom got 
through them, he was out in the bright sunshine 
again ; and then he felt, once for all and suddenly, 
as people generally do, that he was b-e-a-t, beat. 

4. He could not get on. The sun was burning, 
and yet he felt chill all over. He was quite empty, 
and yet he felt quite sick. There was but two 
hundred yards of smooth pasture between him and 
the cottage, and yet he could not walk down it. 
He could hear the stream murmuring only one field 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


27 


beyond it, and yet it seemed to him as if it was a 
hundred miles off. 

5. He lay down on the grass till the beetles ran 
over him, and the flies settled on his nose. I don’t 
know when he would have got up again, if the 
gnats and the midges had not taken compassion on 
him. But the gnats blew their trumpets so loud 
in his ear, and the midges nibbled so at his hands 
and face wherever they could And a place free from 
soot, that at last he woke up, and stumbled away, 
down over a low wall, and into a narrow road, and 
up to the cottage-door. 

6. And a neat, pretty cottage it was, with clipped 
yew hedges all round the garden, and yews inside 
too, cut into peacocks and trumpets and teapots 
and all kinds of queer shapes. . And out of the 
open door came, a noise like that of the frogs on the 
Great-A, when they know that it is going to be 
scorching hot to-morrow — and how they know that 
I don’t know, and you don’t know, and nobody 
knows. 

He came slowly up to the open door, which was 
all hung round with clematis and roses; and then 
peeped in, half afraid. 

7. And there sat by the empty flreplace, which 
was filled with a pot of sweet herbs, the nicest old 
woman that ever was seen, in her red petticoat, and 


28 


THE WATER-BABIES 


short dimity bedgown, and clean white cap, with a 
black silk handkerchief over it, tied under her chin. 
At her feet sat the grandfather of all the cats; and 
opposite her sat, on two benches, twelve or four- 
teen neat, rosy, chubby little children, learning 
Chris-cross-row and gabble enough they made 
about it. 

8. Such a pleasant cottage it was, with a shiny 
clean stone floor, and curious old prints on the 
walls, and an old black oak sideboard full of bright 
pewter and brass dishes, and a cuckoo clock in the 
corner, which began shouting as soon as Tom ap- 
peared; not that it was frightened at Tom, but 
that it was just eleven o’clock. 

9. All the children started at Tom’s dirty black 
figure, — the girls began to cry, and the boys began 
to laugh, and all pointed at him rudely enough; 
but Tom was too tired to care for that. 

“What art thou, and what dost want?” cried 
the old dame. “ A chimney-sweep ! Away with 
thee! I’ll have no sweeps here.” 

10. “Water,” said poor little Tom, quite faint. 

“Water? There’s plenty i’ the beck,”^® she 

said, quite sharply. 


*8 Chris-cross-row (Christ-cross-row) : The alphabet, so called from 
a way of writing it in the form of a cross as a charm. 

*9 Beck : A small brook. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND -BABY 29 

But I can’t get there; I’m most clemmed^® 
with hunger and drought.” And Tom sank down 
upon the door-step, and laid his head against the 
post. 

And the old dame looked at him through her 
spectacles one minute, and two, and three; and 
then she said, He’s sick; and a bairn’s a bairn, 
sweep or none.” 

11. Water,” said Tom. 

God forgive me! ” and she put by her spec- 
tacles, and rose, and came to Tom. Water’s bad 
for thee; I’ll give thee milk.” And she toddled 
off into the next room, and brought a cup of milk 
and a bit of bread. 

Tom drank the milk off at one draught, and then 
looked up, revived. 

“ Where didst come from ? ” said the dame. 

12. Over Fell, there,” said Tom, and pointed 
up into the sky. 

Over Harthover? and down Lewthwaite Crag? 
Art sure thou art not lying? ” 

“ Why should I ? ” said Tom, and leaned his 
head against the post. 

“ And how got ye up there ? ” 

I came over from the Place;” and Tom was 


30 Clemmed: Starved. 

31 Bairn ; Child. 


30 


THE WATER-BABIES 


SO tired and desperate he had no heart or time to 
think of a story, so he told all the truth in a few 
words. 

13. Bless thy little heart! And thou hast not 
been stealing, then? ’’ 

hTo.’’ 

Bless thy little heart ! and Idl warrant not. 
Why, God’s guided the bairn, because he was inno- 
cent! Away from the Place, and over Harthover 
Pell, and down Lewthwaite Crag! Who ever 
heard the like, if God hadn’t led him? Why dost 
not eat thy bread ? ” 

I can’t.” 

14. It’s good enough, for I made it myself.” 

I can’t,” said Tom, and he laid his head on 

his knees, and then asked: 

Is it Sunday? ” 

PTo, then; why should it be? ” 

Because I hear the church-bells ringing so.” 

15. Bless thy pretty heart! The bairn’s sick. 
Come wi’ me, and I’ll hap thee up somewhere. 
If thou wert a bit cleaner I’d put thee in my own 
bed, for the Lord’s sake. But come along here.” 

But when Tom fried to get up, he was so tired 
and giddy that she had to help him and lead him. 

16. She put him in an outhouse upon soft sweet 


23 Hap : Wrap. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


31 


hay and an old rug, and bade him sleep off his 
walk, and she would come to him when school was 
over, in an hour’s time. 

And so she went in again, expecting Tom to fall 
fast asleep at once. 

But Tom did not fall asleep. 

17. Instead of it he turned and tossed and 
kicked about in the strangest way, and felt so hot 
all over that he longed to get into the river and 
cool himself; and then he fell half asleep, and 
dreamt that he heard the little white lady cry- 
ing to him, Oh, you’re so dirty; go and be 
washed;” and then he heard the Irishwoman say- 
ing, Those that wish to be clean, clean they 
will be.” 

18. And then he heard the church-bells ring so 
loud, close to him too, that he was sure it must be 
Sunday, in spite of what the old dame had said; 
and he would go to church, and see what a church 
was like inside, for he had never been in one, poor 
little fellow, in all his life. But the people would 
never let him come in, all over soot and dirt like 
that. He must go to the river and wash first. 
And he said out loud again and again, though 
being half asleep he did not know it, I must he 
clean, I must be clean.” 

19. And all of a sudden he found himself, not 


32 


THE WATER-BABIES 


in the outhouse on the hay, hut in the middle of a 
meadow, over the road, with the stream just be- 
fore him, saying continually, I must be clean, I 
must be clean.’’ He had got there on his own 
legs, between sleep and awake, as children will 
often get out of bed, and go about the room, when 
they are not quite well. But he was not a bit 
surprised, and went on to the bank of the brook, 
and lay down on the grass, and looked into the 
clear, clear limestone water, with every pebble at 
the bottom bright and clean, while the little silver 
trout dashed about in fright at the sight of his 
black face; and he dipped his hand in and found 
it so cool, cool, cool; and he said, I will be a fish; 
I will swim in the water; I must be clean, I must 
be clean.” 

20. So he pulled off all his clothes in such haste 
that he tore some of them, which was easy enough 
with such ragged old things. And he put his poor 
hot sore feet into the water; and then his legs; 
and the farther he went in, the more the church 
bells rang in his head. 

21. “ Ah,” said Tom, I must be quick and 
wash myself; the bells are ringing quite loud 
now; and they will soon stop, and then the door 
will be shut, and I shall never be able to get in 
at all.” 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


33 


And all the while he never saw the Irishwoman, 
not behind him this time, but before. 

22. For just before he came to the river side, 
she had stepped down into the cool clear water; 
and her shawl and her petticoat floated off her, 
and the green water-weeds floated round her sides, 
and the white water-lilies floated round her head, 
and the fairies of the stream came up from the 
bottom and bore her away and down upon their 
arms; for she was the Queen of them all; and per- 
haps of more besides. 

Where have you been? ’’ they asked her. 

23. I have been smoothing sick folks’ pillows, 
and whispering sweet dreams into their ears; open- 
ing cottage casements, to let out the stifling air; 
coaxing little children away from gutters, and foul 
pools where fever breeds; turning women from 
the gin-shop door, and staying men’s hands as they 
were going to strike their wives ; doing all I can to 
help those who will not help themselves : and little 
enough that is, and weary work for me. But I 
have brought you a new little brother, and 
watched him safe all the way here.” 

24. Then all the fairies laughed for joy at the 
thought that they had a little brother coming. 

But mind, maidens, he must not see you, or 
know that you are here. lie is but a savage now. 


34 


THE WATER-BABIES 


and like the beasts which perish; and from the 
beasts which perish he must learn. So you must 
not play with him, or speak to him, or let him see 
you : but only keep him from being harmed.’’ 

25. Then the fairies were sad, because they 
could not play with their new brother, but they 
always did what they were told. 

And their Queen floated away down the river; 
and whither she went, thither she came. But all 
this Tom, of course, never saw or heard: and per- 
haps if he had it would have made little difference 
in the story; for he was so hot and thirsty, and 
longed so to be clean for once, that he tumbled 
himself as quick as he could into the clear cool 
stream. 

26. And he had not been in it two minutes be- 
fore he fell fast asleep, into the quietest, sunniest, 
cosiest sleep that ever he had in his life; and he 
dreamt about the green meadows by which he 
had walked that morning, and the tall elm-trees, 
and the sleeping cows; and after that he dreamt 
of nothing at all. 

The reason of his falling into such a delightful 
sleep is very simple; and yet hardly anyone has 
found it out. It was merely that the fairies took 
him. 

27. The kind old dame came back at twelve. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


35 


when school was over, to look at Tom, but there 
was no Tom there. She looked about for his foot- 
prints; but the ground was so hard that there was 
no slot, as they say in dear old Korth Devon.^* 

So the old dame went in again quite sulky, think- 
ing that little Tom had tricked her with a false 
story, and shammed ill, and then run away again. 

But she altered her mind the next day. For, 
when Sir John and the rest of them had run them- 
selves out of breath, and lost Tom, they went back 
again, looking very foolish. 

28. And they looked more foolish still when 
Sir John heard more of the story from the nurse; 
and more foolish still, again, when they heard the 
whole story from Miss Elbe, the little lady in 
white. All she had seen was a poor little black 
chimney-sweep, crying and sobbing, and going to 
get up the chimney again. Of course, she was 
very much frightened: and no wonder. But that 
was all. The boy had taken nothing in the room; 
by the mark of his little sooty feet, they could see 
that he had never been oif the hearthrug till the 
nurse caught hold of him. It was all a mistake. 

29. And Tom? 

Ah I now comes the most wonderful part of this 
wonderful story. Tom, when he woke, for of 


23 Devon ; A county of England. 


36 


THE WATER-BABIES 


course he woke — children ahvays wake after they 
have slept exactly as long as is good for them — 
found himself swimming about in the stream, 
being about four inches long, and having round 
his neck a set of external gills just like those of a 
sucking eft,^* which he mistook for a lace frill, till 
he pulled at them, found he hurt himself, and 
made up his mind that they were part of himself, 
and best left alone. 

In fact, the fairies had turned him into a water- 
baby. 

30. But at all events, so it happened to Tom. 
And, therefore, the keeper, and the groom, and Sir 
John made a great mistake, and were very un- 
happy (Sir John at least) without any reason, when 
they found a black thing in the water, and said it 
was Tom’s body, and that he had been drowned. 
They were utterly mistaken. Tom was quite 
alive; and cleaner, and merrier, than he ever had 
been. 

31. The fairies had washed him, you see, in the 
swift river, so thoroughly that not only his dirt, 
but his whole husk and shell had been washed quite 
off him, and the pretty little real Tom was washed 
out of the inside of it, and swam away, as a 


24 Eft : A newt ; a small water animal. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


37 


caddis does when its case of stones and silk is 
bored through, and away it goes on its back, pad- 
dling to the shore, there to split its skin, and fly 
away as a caperer,”® on four fawn-colored wings, 
with long legs and horns. They are foolish fel- 
lows, the caperers, and fly into the candle at night, 
if you leave the door open. We will hope Tom 
will be wiser, now he has got safe out of his sooty 
old shell. 

32. But good Sir John did not understand all 
this, and he took it into his head that Tom was 
drowned. When they looked into the empty 
pockets of his shell, and found no jewels there, nor 
money — nothing but three marbles, and a brass 
button with a string to it — then Sir John did some- 
thing as like crying as ever he did in his life, and 
blamed himself more bitterly than he need have 
done. 

33. So he cried, and the groom-boy cried, and 
the huntsman cried, and the dame cried, and 
the little girl cried, and the dairymaid cried, and 
the old nurse cried (for it was somewhat her fault), 
and my lady cried, for though people have wigs, 
that is no reason why they should not have hearts ; 
but the keeper did not cry, though he had been so 


85 Caddis : A cape-worm ; the larva of a little fly called the caddis-fly. 
Caperer : The caddis-fly. 


38 


THE WATER-BABIES 


good-natured to Tom the morning before; for he 
was so dried up with running after poachers that 
you could no more get tears out of him than milk 
out of leather: and Grimes did not cry, for Sir 
John gave him ten pounds, and he drank it all in 
a week. 

34. Sir John sent, far and wide, to find Tom’s 
father and mother: but he might have looked till 
Doomsday for them, for one was dead, and the 
other was in Botany Bay.^^ And the little girl 
would not play with her dolls for a whole week, 
and never forgot poor little Tom. And soon my 
lady put a pretty little tombstone over Tom’s shell 
in the little churchyard in Vendale, where the old 
dalesmen all sleep side by side between the lime- 
stone crags. 

35. And the dame decked it with garlands every 
Sunday, till she grew so old that she could not stir 
abroad; then the little children decked it for her. 
And always she sang an old song, as she sat spin- 
ning what she called her wedding-dress. The 
children could not understand it, but they liked it 
none the less for that; for it was very sweet, and 
very sad; and that was enough for them. And 
these are the words of it: 


27 Botany Bay : An English convict settlement in Australia. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


39 


“ When all the world is young, lad, 

And all the trees are green ; 

And every goose a swan, lad. 

And every lass a queen ; 

Then hey for boot and horse, lad. 

And round the world away ; 

Young blood must have its course, lad. 

And every dog his day. 

“ When all the world is old, lad, 

And all the trees are brown ; 

And all the sport is stale, lad. 

And all the wheels run down ; 

Creep home, and take your place there, 

The spent and maimed among : 

God grant you find one face there, 

You loved when all was young.” 

36. Those are the words: but they are only the 
body of it: the soul of the song was the dear old 
woman^s sweet face, and sweet voice, and the sweet 
old air to which she sang; and that, alas! one can- 
not put on paper. And at last she grew so stiff 
and lame that the angels were forced to carry her; 
and they helped her on with her wedding-dress, 
and carried her up over Harthover Fells, and a 
long way beyond that, too; and there was a new 
schoolmistress in Yendale. 

37. And all the while Tom was swimming about 
in the river, with a pretty little lace-collar of gills 
about his neck, as lively as a grig, and as clean as 
a fresh-run salmon. 


40 


THE WATER-BABIES 


l^^'ow if you don’t like my story, then go to the 
schoolroom and learn your multiplication-table, 
and see if you like that better. Some people, no 
doubt, would do so. So much the better for us, 
if not for them. It takes all sorts, they say, to 
make a world. 


CHAPTEK III 

1. Tom was now quite amphibious,^® and what 
is better still, he was clean. For the first time in 
his life, he felt how comfortable it was to have 
nothing on him but himself. But he only enjoyed 
it: he did not know it, or think about it; just as 
you enjoy life and health, and yet never think 
about being alive and healthy; and may it be long 
before you have to think about it ! 

2. He did not remember having ever been dirty. 
Indeed, he did not remember any of his old 
troubles, being tired, or hungry, or beaten, or sent 
up dark chimneys. Since that sweet sleep, he had 
forgotten all about his master, and Harthover 
Place, and the little white girl, and in a word, all 
that had happened to him when he lived before; 
and what was best of all, he had forgotten all the 


Amphibious ; Al)le to live both on l^nd nnd in water, 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


41 


bad words which he had learned from Grimes and 
the rnde boys with whom he used to play. 

3. But Tom was very happy in the water. He 
had been sadly overworked in the land- world; and 
so now, to make up for that, he had nothing but 
holidays in the water-world for a long, long time to 
come. He had nothing to do now but enjoy him- 
self, and look at all the pretty things which are to- 
be seen in the cool clear water-world, where the 
sun is never too hot, and the frost is never too cold. 

And what did he live on? Water-cresses, per- 
haps; or perhaps water-gruel, and water-milk. 

4. How you must know that all the things under 
the water talk; only not such a language as ours; 
but such as horses, and dogs, and cows, and birds 
talk to each other; and Tom soon learned to under- 
stand them and talk to them; so that he might 
have had very pleasant company if he had only 
been a good boy. But I am sorry to say, he was 
too like some other little boys, very fond of hunt- 
ing and tormenting creatures for mere sport. 

5. Some people say that boys cannot help it; 
that it is nature, and only a proof that we are all 
originally descended from beasts of prey. But 
whether it is nature or not, little boys can help it, 
and must help it. For if they have naughty, low, 
mischievous tricks in their nature, as monkeys 


.42 


THE WATER-BABIES 


have, that is no reason why they should give way 
to those tricks like monkeys, who know no better. 
And therefore they must not torment dumb crea- 
tures; for if they do, a certain old lady who is 
coming will surely give them exactly what they 
deserve. 

6. But Tom did not know that; and he pecked 
and howked the poor water-things about sadly, till 
they were all afraid of him, and got out of his way, 
or crept into their shells ; so ho had no one to speak 
to or play with. 

The water-fairies, of course, were very sorry to 
see him so unhappy, and longed to take him, and 
tell him how naughty he was, and teach him to be 
good, and to play and romp with him too : but they 
had been forbidden to do that. Tom had to learn 
his lesson for himself by sound and sharp experi- 
ence, as many another foolish person has to do, 
though there may be many a kind heart yearning 
over them all the while, and longing to teach them 
what they can only teach themselves. 

7. On the evening of a very hot day, he saw a 
sight. 

He had been very stupid all day, and so had the 
trout; for they would not move an inch to take a 
fly, though there were thousands on the water, but 
lay dozing at the bottom under the shade of the 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 43 

stones; and Tom lay dozing too, and was glad to 
cuddle their smooth cool sides, for the water was 
quite warm and unpleasant. 

8. But toward evening it grew suddenly dark, 
and Tom looked up and saw a blanket of black 
clouds lying right across the valley above his head, 
resting on the crags right and left. He felt not 
quite frightened, but very still ; for everything was 
still. There was not a whisper of wind, nor a 
chirp of a bird to be heard; and next a few great 
drops of rain fell plop into the water, and one 
hit Tom on the nose, and made him pop his head 
down quickly enough. 

9. And then the thunder roared, and the light- 
ning flashed, and leaped across Yendale and back 
again, from cloud to cloud, and cliff to cliff, till the 
very rocks in the stream seemed to shake: and 
Tom looked up at it through the water, and 
thought it the finest thing he ever saw in his life. 

10. But out of the water he dared not put his 
head; for the rain came down by bucketsful, and 
the hail hammered like shot on the stream, and 
churned it into foam; and soon the stream rose, 
and rushed down, higher and higher, and fouler 
and fouler, full of beetles, and sticks; and straws, 
and worms, and addle-eggs, and wood-lice, and 


Plop : Suddenly, heavily. 


44 


THE WATER-BABIES 


leeches, and odds and ends, and omnium- 
gatherums, and this, that, and the other, enough to 
fill nine museums. 

11. Tom could hardly stand against the stream, 
and hid behind a rock. But the trout did not ; for 
out they rushed from among the stones, and began 
gobbling the beetles and leeches in the most greedy 
and quarrelsome way, and swimming about with 
great worms hanging out of their mouths, tugging 
and kicking to get them away from each other. 

12. And now, by the flashes of the lightning, 
Tom saw a new sight — all the bottom of the stream 
alive with great eels, turning and twisting along, 
all down stream and away. They had been hiding 
for weeks past in the cracks of the rocks, and in 
burrows in the mud; and Tom had hardly ever 
seen theih, except now and then at night : but now 
they were all out, and went hurrying past him so 
fiercely and wildly that he was quite frightened. 
And as they hurried past he could hear them say 
to each other, We must run, we must run. 
What a jolly thunderstorm! Down to the sea, 
down to the sea ! ’’ 

13. And then the otter came by with all her 
brood, twining and sweeping along as fast as the 
eels themselves; and she spied Tom as she came 
by, and said : 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


45 


'Now is your time, eft, if you want to see the 
world. Come along, children, never mind those 
nasty eels: we shall breakfast on salmon to- 
morrow. Down to the sea, down to the sea ! ’’ 

14. Then came a flash brighter than all the rest, 
and by the light of it — in the thousandth part of a 
second they were gone again — but he had seen 
them, he was certain of it — three beautiful little 
white girls, with their arms twined round each 
other’s necks, floating down the torrent, as they 
sang, Down to the sea, down to the sea! ” 

Oh stay! Wait for me! ” cried Tom; but 
they were gone: yet he could hear their voices 
clear and sweet through the roar of thunder and 
water and wind, singing as they died away, Down 
to the sea! ” 

15. Down to the sea?” said Tom; ^^every- 
thing is going to the sea, and I will go too. Good- 
by, trout.” But the trout were so busy gobbling 
worms that they never turned to answer him; so 
that Tom was spared the pain of bidding them 
farewell. 

16. And now, down the rushing stream, guided 
by the bright flashes of the storm; past tall birch- 
fringed rocks, which shone out one moment as 
clear as day, and the next were dark as night; past 
dark hovers under- swirling banks, from which 


46 


THE WATER-BABIES 


great trout rushed out on Tom, thinking him to 
be good to eat, and turned back sulkily, for the 
fairies sent them home again with a tremendous 
scolding, for daring to meddle with a water-baby; 
on through narrow strids and roaring cataracts, 
where Tom was deafened and blinded for a mo- 
ment by the rushing ^vaters; along deep reaches, 
where the white water-lilies tossed and flapped be- 
neath the wind and hail; past sleeping villages; 
under dark bridge-arches, and away and away to 
the sea. And Tom could not stop, and did not 
care to stop; he would see the great world below, 
and the salmon, and the breakers, and the wide 
wide sea. 

17. And when the daylight came, Tom found 
himself out in the salmon river. 

And after a while he came to a place where the 
river spread out into broad still shallow reaches, 
so wide that little Tom, as he put his head out of 
the water, could hardly see across. 

18. And "there he stopped. He got a little 
frightened. This must be the sea,’’ he thought. 

What a wide place it is! If I go on into it I 
shall surely lose my way, or some strange thing will 
bite me. I will stop here and look out for the 


8® Strid : A narrow passage between steep banks which looks as if it 
might be crossed at a stride. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


47 


otter, or the eels, or someone to tell me where I 
shall go.’’ 

19. So he went back a little way, and crept into 
a crack of the rock, just where the river opened out 
into the wide shallows, and watched for someone 
to tell him his way: but the otter and the eels were 
gone on miles and miles down the stream. 

20. There he waited, and slept too, for he was 
quite tired with his night’s journey; and, when he 
woke, the stream was clearing to a beautiful amber 
hue, though it was still very high. And after a 
while he saw a sight which made him jump up; 
for he knew in a moment it was one of the things 
which he had come to look for. 

21. Such a fish! ten times as big as the biggest 
trout, and a hundred times as big as Tom, sculling 
up the stream past him, as easily as Tom had 
sculled down. 

22. Such a fish! shining silver from head to 
tail, and here and there a crimson dot; with a 
grand hooked nose and grand curling lip, and a 
grand bright eye, looking round him as proudly as 
a king, and surveying the water right and left as 
if all belonged to him. Surely he must be the 
salmon, the king of all the fish. 

23. Tom was so frightened that he longed to 
creep into a hole; but he need not have been; for 


48 


THE WATER-BABIES 


salmon are all true gentlemen, and, like true gen- 
tlemen, they look noble and proud enough, and yet, 
like true gentlemen, they never harm or quarrel 
with anyone, but go abou.t their own business, and 
leave rude fellows to themselves. 

24. The salmon looked at him full in the face, 
and then went on without minding him, with a 
swish or two of his tail which made the stream boil 
again. And in a few minutes came another, and 
then four or five, and so on; and all passed Tom, 
rushing and plunging up the cataract with strong 
strokes of their silver tails, now and then leaping 
clean out of water and up over a rock, shining glori- 
ously for a moment in the bright sun; while Tom 
was so delighted that he could have watched them 
all day long. 

25. And at last one came up bigger than all the 
rest; but he came slowly, and stopped, and looked 
back, and seemed very anxious and busy. And 
Tom saw that he was helping another salmon, an 
especially handsome one, who had not a single spot 
upon it, but was clothed in pure silver from nose 
to tail. 

26. My dear,” said the great fish to his com- 
panion, you really look dreadfully tired, and you 
must not over-exert yourself at first. Do rest 
yourself behind this rock;” and he shoved her 


A FAIEY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


49 


gently with his nose, to the rock where Tom 
sat. 

27. Yon must know, that this was the salmon’s 
wife. For salmon, like other true gentlemen, 
always choose their lady, and love her, and are true 
to her, and take care of her and work for her, and 
fight for her, as every true gentleman ought; and 
are not like vulgar chub and roach and pike, who 
have no high feelings, and take no care of their 
wives. 

Then he saw Tom, and looked at him very 
fiercely one moment, as if he was going to bite 
him. 

What do you want here? ” he said, very 
fiercely. 

Oh, don’t hurt me!” cried Tom. I only 
want to look at you; you are so handsome.” 

28. Ah?” said the salmon, very stately hut 
very civilly. I really beg your pardon; I see 
what you are, my little dear. I have met one or 
two creatures like you before, and found them very 
agreeable and well-behaved. Indeed, one of them 
showed me a great kindness lately, which I hope 
to be able to repay. I hope we shall not be in 
your way here. As soon as this lady is rested, we 
shall proceed on our journey.” 

29. AVhat a well-bred old salmon he was! 


50 


THE WATER-BABIES 


So you have seen things like me before ? 
asked Tom. 

Several times, my dear. Indeed, it was only 
last night that one at the river’s mouth came and 
warned me and my wife of some new stake-nets 
which had got into the stream, I cannot tell how, 
since last winter, and showed us the way round 
them, in the most charmingly obliging way.” 

30. So there are babies in the sea?” cried 
Tom, and clapped his little hands. Then I shall 
have someone to play with there! How delight- 
ful! ” 

Were there no babies up this stream? ” asked 
the lady salmon. 

hTo! and I grew so lonely. I thought I saw 
three last night; but they were gone in an instant, 
down to the sea. So I went too; for I had noth- 
ing to play with but caddises and dragon-flies and 
trout.” 

Ugh! ” cried the lady, what low company! ” 

My dear, if he has been in low company, he 
has certainly not learnt their low manners,” said 
the salmon. 

31. Ho, indeed, poor little dear: but how sad 
for him to live among such people as caddises, who 
have actually six legs, the nasty things; and 
dragon-flies, too! why they are not even good to 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 51 

eat; for I tried them once, and they are all hard 
and empty; and, as for trout, everyone knows 
what they are/’ Whereon she curled up her lip, 
and looked dreadfully scornful, while her husband 
curled up his too, till he looked as proud as 
Alcibiades/^ 

32. Why do you dislike the trout so? ” asked 
Tom. 

My dear, we do not even mention them, if we 
can help it; for I am sorry to say they are relations 
of ours who do us no credit. A great many years 
ago they were just like us: but they were so lazy, 
and cowardly, and greedy, that instead of going 
down to the sea every year to see the world and 
grow strong and fat, they chose to stay and poke 
about in the little streams and eat worms and 
grubs; and they are very properly punished for it; 
for they have grown ugly and brown and spotted 
and small; and are actually so degraded in their 
tastes that they will eat our children.” 

33. And then they pretend to scrape acquaint- 
ance with us again,” said the lady. “ Why, I have 
actually known one of them propose to a lady 
salmon, the impudent little creature.” 

I should hope,” said the gentleman, that 
there are very few ladies of our race who would de- 


31 Alcibiades (450-404 b. c.) A famous Greek general. 


52 


THE WATER-BABIES 


grade themselves by listening to such a creature 
for an instant. If I saw such a thing happen, I 
should consider it my duty to put them both to 
death upon the spot.’’ So the old salmon said, 
like an old blue-blooded hidalgo®^ of Spain; and 
what is more, he would have done it, too. For you 
must know, no enemies are so bitter against each 
other as those who are of the same race; and a 
salmon looks on a trout, as some great folks look on 
some little folks, as something just too much like 
himself to be tolerated. 

CHAPTEK lY 

1. So the salmon went up, after Tom had 
warned them of the wicked old otter; and Tom 
went down, but slowly and cautiously, coasting 
along the shore. He was many days about it, for 
it was many miles down to the sea; and perhaps 
he would never have found his way, if the fairies 
had not guided him, without his seeing their fair 
faces, or feeling their gentle hands. 

2. And, as he went, he had a very strange adven- 
ture. It was a clear still September night, and the 
moon shone so brightly down through the water, 
that he could not sleep, though he shut his eyes as 


8* Hidalgo : A Spanish gentleman of noble birth. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND- BABY 53 

tight as possible. So at last he came up to the top, 
and sat upon a little point of rock, and looked up 
at the broad yellow moon, and wondered what she 
was, and thought that she looked at him. And he 
watched the moonlight on the rippling river, and 
the black heads of the firs, and the silver-frosted 
lawns, and listened to the owFs hoot, and the 
snipe’s bleat, and the fox’s bark, and the otter’s 
laugh; and smelt the soft perfume of the birches, 
and the wafts of heather honey off the grouse moor 
far above; and felt very happy, though he could 
not well tell why. You, of course, Avould have 
been very cold sitting there on a September night, 
without the least bit of clothes on your wet back; 
but Tom was a water-baby, and therefore felt cold 
no more than a fish. 

3. Suddenly, he saw a beautiful sight. A bright 
red light moved along the river-side, and threw 
down into the water a long tap-root of flame. 
Tom, curious little rogue that he was, must needs 
go and see what it was; so he swam to the shore, 
and met the light as it stopped over a shallow run 
at the edge of a low rock. 

4. And there, underneath the light, lay five or 
six great salmon, looking up at the flame with their 
great goggle eyes, and wagging their tails, as if 
they were very much pleased at it. 


54 


THE WATER-BABIES 


Tom came to tlie top, to look at tliis wonderful 
light nearer, and made a splash. 

And he heard a voice say: 

There was a fish rose.’’ 

5. He did not know what the words meant: but 
he seemed to know the sound of them, and to know 
the voice which spoke them; and he saw on the 
bank three great two-legged creatures, one of 
whom held the light, flaring and sputtering, and 
another a long pole. And he knew th^t they were 
men, and was frightened, and crept into a hole in 
the rock, from which he could see what went on. 

6. The man with the torch bent down over the 
water, and looked earnestly in; and then he said: 

Tak’ that muckle fellow, lad; he’s ower fif- 
teen punds and hand your hand steady.” 

Tom felt that there was some danger coming, 
and longed to warn the foolish salmon, who kept 
staring up at the light as if he was bewitched. 
But before he could make up his mind, down came 
the pole through the water; there was a fearful 
splash and struggle, and Tom saw that the poor 
salmon was speared right through, and was lifted 
out of the water. 

7. And then, from behind, there sprang on 

33 Muckle : Large. 

34 Punds : Pounds. 

85Haud:Hold. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 55 

these three men three other men; and there were 
shouts, and blows, and words which Tom recol- 
lected to have heard before ; and he shuddered and 
turned sick at them now, for he felt somehow that 
they were strange, and ugly, and wrong, and hor- 
rible. And it all began to come back to him. 
They were men; and they were fighting; savage, 
desperate, up-and-down fighting, such as Tom had 
seen too many times before. 

8. And he stopped his little ears, and longed to 
swim away; and was very glad that he was a 
water-baby, and had nothing to do any more with 
horrid dirty men, with foul clothes on their backs, 
and foul words on their lips; but he dared not stir 
out of his hole : while the rock shook over his head 
with the trampling and struggling of the keepers 
and the poachers. 

9. All of a sudden there was a tremendous 
splash, and a frightful fiash, and a hissing, and all 
was still. 

For into the water, close to Tom, fell one of the 
men ; he who held the light in his hand. Into the 
swift river he sank, and rolled over and over in the 
current. Tom heard the men above run along, 
seemingly looking for him; but he drifted do^vn 


38 Keepers : Men who have care of game. 

37 Poachers ; Those who kill game or fish, etc., contrary to law. 


56 


THE WATER-BABIES 


into the deep hole below, and there lay quite still, 
and they could not find him. 

10. Tom waited a long time, till all was quiet; 
and then he peeped out, and saw the man lying. 
At last he screwed up his courage and swam down 
to him. Perhaps,’^ he thought, the water has 
made him fall asleep, as it did me.’’ 

Then he went nearer. He grew more and more 
curious, he could not tell why. He must go and 
look at him. He would go very quietly, of course ; 
so he swam round and round him, closer and closer ; 
and, as he did not stir, at last he came quite close 
and looked him in the face. 

11. The moon shone so bright that Tom could 
see every feature; and, as he saw, he recollected, 
bit by bit, it was his old master. Grimes. 

Tom turned tail, and swam away as fast as he 
could. 

Oh, dear me ! ” he thought, now he will 
turn into a water-baby. What a nasty trouble- 
some one he will be! And perhaps he will find 
me out, and beat me again.” 

12. So he went up the river again a little way, 
and lay there the rest of the night under an alder 
root; but, when morning came, he longed to go 
down again to the big pool, and see whether Mr. 
Grimes had turned into a water-baby yet, 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


57 


So he went very carefully, peeping round all the 
rocks, and hiding under all the roots. Mr. Grimes 
lay there still; he had not turned into a water- 
baby. In the afternoon Tom went back again. 
He could not rest till he had found out what had 
become of Mr. Grimes. But this time Mr. Grimes 
was gone; and Tom made up his mind that he was 
turned into a water-baby. 

13. He might have made himself easy, poor 
little man; Mr. Grimes did not turn into a water- 
baby, or anything like one at all. But he did not 
make himself easy; and a long time he was fearful 
lest he should meet Grimes suddenly in some deep 
pool. He could not know that the fairies had 
carried him away, and put him, where they put 
everything which falls into the water, exactly 
where it ought to be. 

Then Tom went on down, for he was afraid of 
staying near Grimes: and as he went, all the vale 
looked sad. 

14. But Tom was always a brave, determined, 
little English bulldog, who never knew when he 
was beaten; and on and on he held, till he saw a 
long way off the red buoy through the fog. And 
then he found, to his surprise, the stream turned 
round and running up inland. 

15. It was the tide^ of course; but Tom knew 


58 


THE WATER-BABIES 


nothing of the tide. He only knew that in a min- 
ute more the water, which had been fresh, turned 
salt all round him. And then there came a change 
over him. He felt as strong, and light, and fresh, 
as if his veins had run champagne; and gave, he 
did not know why, three skips out of the water, a 
yard high, and head over heels, just as the salmon 
do when they first touch the noble rich salt water, 
which, as some wise meii tell us, is the mother of 
all living things. 

16. He did not care now for the tide being 
against him. The red buoy was in sight, dancing 
in the open sea; and to the buoy he would go, and 
to it he went. He passed great shoals of bass and 
mullet,®* leaping and rushing in after the shrimps, 
but he never heeded them, or they him; and once 
he passed a great black shining seal, who was com- 
ing in after the mullet. The seal put his head and 
shoulders out of water, and stared at him, looking 
exactly like a fat old negro with a gray pate. 
And Tom, instead of being frightened, said, How 
d^ye do, sir; what a beautiful place the sea is! ’’ 
And the old seal, instead of trying to bite him, 
looked at him with his soft sleepy winking eyes, 
and said, Good tide to you, my little man; are 


38 Hass, Mullet, Turbot ; Kinds of ftsU. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


59 


you looking for your brothers and sisters? I 
passed them all at play outside.’^ 

17. Oh, then/’ said Tom, I shall have play- 
felloAvs at last,” and he swam on to the buoy, and 
got upon it (for he was cjuite out of breath) and 
sat there, and looked round for water-babies: but 
there were none to be seen. 

18. The sea-breeze came in freshly with the 
tide and blew the fog away; and the little waves 
danced for joy around the buoy, and the old buoy 
danced with them. The shadows of the clouds 
ran races over the bright blue bay, and yet never 
caught each other up ; and the breakers plunged 
merrily upon the wide white sands, and jumped 
up over the rocks, to see what the green fields in- 
side were like, and tumbled down and broke them- 
selves all to pieces, and never minded it a bit, but 
mended themselves and jumped up again. And 
the terns hovered over Tom like huge white 
dragon-flies with black heads, and the gulls 
laughed like girls at play, and the sea-pies, with 
their red bills and legs, flew to and fro from shore 
to shore, and whistled sweet and wild. And Tom 
looked and looked, and listened; and he would 
have been very happy, if he could only have seen 


3® Breakers : Waves breaking in foam against the shore. 
40 Terns, Gulls, Sea-pies : Sea-birds. 


60 


THE WATER-BABIES 


the water-babies. Then, when the tide turned, he 
left the buoy, and swam round and round in search 
of them: but in vain. 

19. Sometimes he thought he heard them laugh- 
ing: but it was only the laughter of the ripples. 
And sometimes he thought he saw them at the 
bottom: but it was only white and pink shells. 
And once he was sure he had found one, for he 
saw two bright eyes peeping out of the sand. So 
he dived down, and began scraping the sand away, 
and cried, Don’t hide ; I do want someone to 
play with so much! ” And out jumped a great 
turbot with his ugly eyes and mouth all awy, and 
flopped away along the bottom, knocking poor Tom 
over. And he sat down at the bottom of the sea, 
and cried salt tears from sheer disappointment. 

20. To have come all this way, and faced so 
many dangers, and yet to find no water-babies! 
How hard! Well, it did seem hard: but people, 
even little babies, cannot have all they want with- 
out waiting for it, and working for it too, my little 
man, as you will find out some day. 

21. And Tom sat upon the buoy long days, long 
weeks, looking out to sea, and wondering when the 
water-babies would come back; and yet they never 
came. 

Then he began to ask all the strange things 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


61 


wliicli came in out of the sea if they had seen any; 
and some said Yes/' and some said nothing 
at all. 

22. But one day among the rocks he found a 
playfellow. It was not a water-baby, alas! but it 
was a lobster; and a very distinguished lobster he 
was ; for he had live barnacles on his claws, 
which is a great mark of distinction in lobsterdom, 
and no more to be bought for money than a good 
conscience or the Victoria Cross. 

23. Tom had never seen a lobster before; and 
he was mightily taken with this one; for he 
thought him the most curious, odd, ridiculous 
creature he had ever seen; and there he was not 
far wrong; for all the ingenious men, and all the 
scientific men, and all the fanciful men, in the 
world, with all the old German bogy-painters into 
the bargain, could never invent, if all their wits 
were boiled into one, anything so curious, and so 
ridiculous, as a lobster. 

24. He had one claw knobbed and the other 
jagged; and Tom delighted in watching him hold 
on to the seaweed with his knobbed claw, while he 
cut up salads with his jagged one, and then put 
them into his mouth, after smelling at them, like a 

Barnacles ; Sea animals which adhere to rocks, ships, etc. 

42 Victoria Cross : A bronze cross awarded for valor to British sailors 
or soldiers. 


62 


THE WATER-BABIES 


monkey. And always the little barnacles threw 
out their casting-nets and swept the water, and 
came in for their share of whatever there was for 
dinner. 

25. But Tom was most astonished to see how he 
fired himself off — snap! like the leap-frogs which 
you make out of a goose’s breast-bone. Certainly 
he took the most wonderful shots, and backwards, 
too. For, if he wanted to go into a narrow crack 
ten yards off, what do you think he did? If he 
had gone in head foremost, of course he could not 
have turned round. So he used to turn his tail to 
it, and lay his long horns, which carry his sixth 
sense in their tips (and nobody knows what that 
sixth sense is), straight down his back to guide him, 
and twist his eyes back till they almost came out 
of their sockets, and then made ready, present, fire, 
snap! — and away he went, pop into the hole; and 
peeped out and twiddled his whiskers, as much as 
to say, You couldn’t do that.” 

26. Tom asked him about water-babies. Yes,” 
he said. He had seen them often. But he did 
not think much of them. They were meddlesome 
little creatures, that went about helping fish and 
shells which got into scrapes. Well, for his part, 
he should be ashamed to be helped by little soft 
creatures that had not even a shell on their backs. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 63 

He had lived quite long enough in the world to 
take care of himself. 

27. He was a conceited fellow, the old lobster, 
and not very civil to Tom; and you will hear how 
he had to alter his mind before he was done, as 
conceited people generally have. But he was so 
funny, and Tom so lonely, that he could not quar- 
rel with him; and they used to sit in holes in the 
rocks, and chat for hours. 

And about this time there happened to Tom a 
very strange and important adventure — so impor- 
tant, indeed, that he was very near never finding 
the water-babies at all; and I am sure you would 
have been sorry for that. 

28. It befell that, on the very shore, and over 
the very rocks, where Tom was sitting with his 
friend the lobster, there walked one day the little 
white lady, Elbe herself, and with her a very wise 
man indeed — Professor Ptthmllnsprts.*^ 

Ellie and he were walking on the rocks, and he 
was showing her about one in ten thousand of all 
the beautiful and curious things which are to be 
seen there. But little Ellie was not satisfied with 
them at all. She liked much better to play with 
live children, or even with dolls, which she could 
pretend were alive; and at last she said honestly. 


Ptthmllnsprts ; Put-them-all-in-spirite. 


64 


THE WATER-BABIES 


I don’t care about all these things, because they 
can’t play with me, or talk to me. If there were 
little children now in the water, as there used to 
be, and I could see them, I should like that.” 

• 29. Children in the water, you strange little 

duck ? ” said the professor. 

Yes,” said Ellie. I know there used to be 
children in the water, and mermaids too, and 
mermen. I saw them all in a picture at home, 
of a beautiful lady sailing in a car drawn by 
dolphins, and babies flying round her, and one sit- 
ting in her lap; and the mermaids swimming and 
playing, and the mermen trumpeting on conch- 
shells; and it is called ^ The Triumph of 
Galatea; ’ and there is a burning mountain in 
the picture behind. It hangs on the great stair- 
case, and I have looked at it ever since I was a 
baby, and dreamt about it a hundred times; and it 
is so beautiful that it must be true.” 

30. Little Ellie was, I suppose, a stupid little 
girl; for, instead of being convinced by Professor 
Ptthmllnsprts’ arguments, she only asked the same 
question over again. 

But why are there not water-babies? ” 

44 Mermaids, Mermen : Fabulous sea creatures having the upper 
part of their bodies like men and women and the lower like fish. 

45 The Triumph of Galatea : A famous picture by the Italian artist 
Raphael. Galatea : A sea nymph loved by one of the Cyclops, 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


65 


I trust and hope that it was because the professor 
trod at that moment on the edge of a very sharp 
mussel, and hurt one of his corns sadly, that he 
ansAvered quite sharply: 

Because there aint.’’ 

Which Avas not eA^en good English, my dear little 
boy. 

31. And he groped Avith his net under the Aveeds 
so violently that, as it befell,^® he caught poor little 
Tom. 

He felt the net very heavy; and lifted it out 
quickly, Avith Tom all entangled in the meshes. 

Dear me ! he cried. What a large pink 
Holothurian; AAuth hands, too! It must be con- 
nected Avith Synapta.’’ 

And he took him out. 

/Ht has actually eyes!’’ he cried. Why, it 
must be a Cephalopod! This is a most extraor- 
dinary! ” 

Ho, I aint! ” cried Tom, as loud as he could; 
for he did not like to be called bad names. 

It is a water-baby! ” cried Ellie; and of course 
it was. 

^^Water-fiddlesticks, my dear!” said the pro- 


<6 Befell : Happened. 

47 Holothurian, Synapta, Cephalopod : The scientific names of 
small sea animals. 


66 


THE WATER-BABIES 


fessor; and poked Tom with his finger, for want 
of anything better to do; and said carelessly, My 
dear little maid, you must have dreamt of water- 
babies last night, your head is so full of them.’’ 

32. 'Now Tom had been in the most horrible and 
unspeakable fright all the while ; and had kept as 
quiet as he could, though he was called a Holo- 
thurian and a Cephalopod; for it was fixed in his 
little head that if a man with clothes on caught 
him, he might put clothes on him too, and make a 
dirty black chimney-sweep of him again. But, 
when the professor poked him, it was more than he 
could bear; and, between fright and rage, he 
turned to bay as valiantly as a mouse in a corner, 
and bit the. professor’s finger till it bled. 

33. Oh! ah! yah! ” cried he; and glad of an 
excuse to be rid of Tom, dropped him on to the sea- 
weed, and thence he dived into the water and was 
gone in a moment. 

But it was a water-baby, and I heard it speak! ” 
cried Elbe. Ah, it is gone! ” And she jumped, 
down off the rock to try and catch Tom before he 
slipped into the sea. 

Too late! and what was worse, as she sprang 
down, she slipped, and fell some six feet with her 
head on a sharp rock, and lay quite still. 

34. The professor picked her up, and tried to 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


67 


waken her, and called to her, and cried over her, 
for he loved her very much: but she would not 
waken at all. So he took her up in his arms and 
carried her to her governess, and they all went 
home; and little Ellie was put to bed, and lay 
there quite still; only now and then she woke up 
and called out about the water-baby: but no one 
knew what she meant, and the professor did not 
tell, for he was ashamed to tell. 

35. And, after a week, one moonlight night, 
the fairies came flying in at the window and 
brought her such a pretty pair of wings that she 
could not help putting them on; and she flew with 
them out of the window, and over the land, and 
over the sea, and up through the clouds, and 
nobody heard or saw anything of her for a very 
long while. 


CHAPTEK Y 

1. But what became of little Tom? 

He slipped away off the rocks into the water, as 
I said before. But he could not help thinking of 
little Ellie. He did not remember who she was; 
but he knew that she was a little girl, though she 
was a hundred times as big as he. That is not sur- 
prising: size has nothing to do with kindred. A 


68 


THE WATER-BABIES 


tiny weed may be first cousin to a great tree; and 
a little dog like Vick knows that Lioness is a dog 
too, though she is twenty times larger than herself. 
So Tom knew that Ellie was a little girl, and 
thought about her all that day, and longed to have 
had her to play with; but he had very soon to 
think of something else. 

2. He was going along the rocks in three-fathom 
water, watching the pollock catch prawns,^® and 
the wrasses nibble barnacles off the rocks, shells 
and all, when he saw a round cage of green 
withes; and inside it, looking very much ashamed 
of himself, sat his friend the lobster, twiddling his 
horns, instead of thumbs. 

What, have you been naughty, and have they 
put you in the lock-up? asked Tom. 

The lobster felt a little indignant at such a 
notion, but he was too much depressed in spirits 
to argue; so he only said, I can’t get out.” 

Why did you get in? ” 

3. After that nasty piece of dead fish.” He 
had thought it looked and smelt very nice when he 
was outside, and so it did, for a lobster: but now 
he turned round and abused it because he was 
angry with himself. 


Pollocks, Wrasses : Sea-fish. 
Prawns : Shrimp-like animals. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


69 


Where did you get in? ’’ 

Through that round hole at the top.’’ 

Then why don’t you get out through it? ” 
Because I can’t:” and the lobster twiddled 
his horns more fiercely than ever, but he was forced 
to confess. 

4. I have jumped upwards, downwards, back- 
wards, and sideways, at least four thousand times; 
and I can’t get out: I always get up underneath 
there, and can’t find the hole.” 

Tom looked at the trap, and having more wit 
than the lobster, he saw plainly enough what was 
the matter; as you may if you will look at a 
lobster-pot. 

Stop a bit,” said Tom. Turn your tail up to 
me, and I’ll pull you through hindforemost, and 
then you won’t stick in the spikes.” 

5. But the lobster was so stupid and clumsy that 
he couldn’t hit the hole. Like a great many fox- 
hunters, he was very sharp as long as he was in 
his own country; but as soon as they get out of it 
they lose their heads; and so the lobster, so to 
speak, lost his tail. 

Tom reached and clawed down the hole after 
him, till he caught hold of him; and then, as was 
to be expected, the clumsy lobster pulled him in 
head foremost. 


70 


THE WATER-BABIES 


Hullo ! here is a pretty business/’ said Tom. 

How take your great claws, and break the points 
off those spikes, and then we shall both get out 
easily.” 

Dear me, I never thought of that,” said the 
lobster; and after all the experience of life that 
I have had! ” 

6. You see, experience is of very little good 
unless a man, or a lobster, has wit enough to make 
use of it. For a good many people, like old Polo- 
nius,^® have seen all the world, and yet remain 
little better than children after all. 

But they had not got half the spikes away when 
they saw a great dark cloud over them: and lo, 
and behold, it was the otter. 

How she did grin and grin when she saw Tom. 

Yar! ” said she, you little meddlesome wretch, 
I have you now! I will serve you out for telling 
the salmon where I was! ” And she crawled all 
over the pot to get in. 

7. Tom was horribly frightened, and still more 
frightened when she found the hole in the top, and 
squeezed herself right down through it, all eyes 
and teeth. But no sooner was her head inside than 
valiant Mr. Lobster caught her by the nose and 
held on. 


60 Polonius : The king’s chamberlain in Shakspere’s play, Hamlet, 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


n 


And there they were all three in the pot, rolling 
over and over, and very tight packing it was. 
And the lobster tore at the otter, and the otter tore 
at the lobster, and both squeezed and thumped poor 
Tom till he had no breath left in his body; and I 
donT know what would have happened to him if 
he had not at last got on the otter’s back, and safe 
out of the hole. 

8. He was right glad when he got out: but he 
would not desert his friend who had saved him; 
and the first time he saw his tail uppermost he 
caught hold of it, and pulled with all his might. 

But the lobster would not let go. 

Come along,” said Tom; “ don’t you see she is 
dead ? ” And so she was, quite drowned and dead. 

And that was the end of the wicked otter. 

But the lobster would not let go. 

Come along, you stupid old stick-in-the-mud,” 
cried Tom, or the fisherman will catch you!” 
And that was true, for Tom felt someone above 
beginning to haul up the pot. 

But the lobster would not let go. 

9. Tom saw the fisherman haul him up to the 
boat-side, and thought it was all up with him. 
But when Mr. Lobster saw the fisherman, he gave 
such a furious and tremendous snap that he 
snapped out of his hand, and out of the pot, and 


12 


THE WATER-BABIES 


safe into the sea. But he left his knobbed claw 
behind him; for it never came into his stupid head 
to let go after all, so he just shook his claw otf as 
the easier method. 

10. And now happened to Tom a most wonder- 
ful thing; for he had not left the lobster five 
minutes before he came upon a water-baby. 

A real live water-baby, sitting on the white sand, 
very busy about a little point of rock. And when 
it saw Tom it looked up for a moment, and then 
cried, Why, you are not one of us. You are a 
new baby! Oh, how delightful! ’’ 

And it ran to Tom, and Tom ran to it, and they 
hugged and kissed each other for ever so long, they 
did not know why. But they did not want any 
introductions there under the water. 

11. At last Tom said, Oh, where have you 
been all this while? I have been looking for you 
so long, and I have been so lonely.’’ 

We have been here for days and days. There 
are hundreds of us about the rocks. How was it 
you did not see us, or hear us when we sing and 
romp every evening before we go home? ” 

Tom looked at the baby again, and then he 
said : 

^^Well, this is wonderful! I have seen things 
just like you again and again, but I thought you 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


73 


were shells, or sea-creatnres. I never took you for 
water-babies like myself/^ 

12. Now, was not that very odd? So odd, in- 
deed, that you will, no doubt, want to know how 
it happened, and why Tom could never find a 
water-baby till after he had got the lobster out of 
the pot. And, if you will read this story nine 
times over, and then think for yourself, you will 
find out why. 

J^ow,’’ said the baby, come and help me, or 
I shall not have finished before my brothers and 
sisters come, and it is time to go home.’’ 

What shall I help you at? ” 

At this poor dear little rock; a great clumsy 
bowlder came rolling by in the last storm, and 
knocked all its head off, and rubbed off all its 
flowers. And now I must plant it again with sea- 
weeds, and coralline,®^ and anemones,®^ and I will 
make it the prettiest little rock-garden on all the 
shore.” 

13. So they worked away at the rock, and 
planted it, and smoothed the sand down round it, 
and capital fun they had till the tide began to turn. 
And then Tom heard all the other babies coming, 
laughing and singing and shouting and romping; 


61 Coralline : A many-jointed sea-plant. 
An^mpnes : Small sea-plants, 


14 


THE WATER-BABIES 


and the noise they made was just like the noise of 
the ripple. So he knew that he had been hearing 
and seeing the water-babies all along; only he did 
not know them, because his eyes and ears were not 
opened. 

And in they came, dozens and do'^ens of them, 
some bigger than Tom and some smaller, all in the 
neatest little white bathing dresses; and when they 
found that he was a new baby, they hugged him 
and kissed him, and then put him in the middle 
and danced round him on the sand, and there was 
no one ever so happy as poor little Tom. 

14. I^'ow then,’’ they cried all at once, we 
must come away home, we must come away home, 
or the tide will leave us dry. We have mended all 
the broken seaweed, and put all the rock-pools in 
order, and planted all the shells again in the sand, 
and nobody will see where the ugly storm swept in 
last week.” 

And this is the reason why the rock-pools are 
always so neat and clean, because the water-babies 
coirie inshore after every storm to sweep them out, 
and comb them down, and put them all to rights 
again. 

And where is the home of the water-babies? In 
St. Brandan’s fairy isle. 

St, Bran^an’s Isle ; A wouderful flying island said to lie beyond 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 75 

15. And there were the water-babies in thou- 
sands, more than Tom, or you either, could count. 

But I wish Tom had given up all his naughty 
tricks, and left off tormenting dumb animals now 
that he had plenty of playfellows to amuse him. 
Instead of that, I am sorry to say, he would meddle 
with the creatures, all but the water-snakes, for 
they would stand no nonsense. So he tickled the 
madrepores,®^ to make them shut up; and fright- 
ened the crabs, to make them hide in the sand and 
peep out at him with the tips of their eyes; and put 
stones into the anemones’ mouths, to make them 
fancy that their dinner was coming. 

16. The other children warned him, and said. 

Take care what you are at. Mrs. Bedonebyas- 

youdid is coming.” But Tom never heeded them, 
being quite riotous with high spirits and good luck, 
till, one Friday morning early, Mrs. Bedonebyas- 
youdid came indeed. 

A very tremendous lady she’ was ; and when the 
children saw her they all stood in a row, very up- 
right indeed, and smoothed down their bathing 
dresses, and put their hands behind them, just as 
if they were going to he examined by the inspector. 

17. And she had on a black bonnet, and a black 

the Canal ies. St. Brandan was an Irish Bishop of the sixth century, who 
traveled in search of the Islands of Paradise. 

Madrepores : Corals. 


76 


THE WATER-BABIES 


shawl, and no crinoline at all; and a pair of large 
green spectacles, and a great hooked nose, hooked 
so much that the bridge of it stood quite up above 
her eyebrows; and under her arm she carried a 
great birch-rod. Indeed, she was so ugly that 
Tom was tempted to make faces at her: but did 
not; for he did not admire the look of the birch- 
rod under her arm. 

And she looked at the children one by one, and 
seemed very much pleased with them, though she 
never asked them one question about how they 
were behaving; and then began giving them all 
sorts of nice sea-things — sea-cakes, sea-apples, sea- 
oranges, sea-bullseyes,®® sea-toffee; and to the 
very best of all she gave sea-ices, made out of sea- 
cows’ cream, which never melt under water. 

18. How little Tom watched all these sweet 
things given away, till his mouth watered, and his 
eyes grew as round as an owl’s. For he hoped that 
his turn would come at last; and so it did. For 
the lady called him up, and held out her fingers 
with something in them, and popped it into his 
mouth; and, lo and behold, it was a nasty cold 
hard pebble. 

You are a very cruel woman,” said he, and 
began to whimper. 


66 Crinoline : Stiff cloth extending the dress skirt. 
6« Bullseyes ; Candy balls. Toffee : Taffy. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY YY 

And you are a very cruel boy ; who puts 
pebbles into the sea-anemones^ mouths, to take 
them in, and make them fancy that they had 
caught a good dinner! As you did to them, so I 
must do to you/’ 

19. Who told you that? ” said Tom. 

You did yourself, this very minute.” 

Tom had never opened his lips; so he was very 
much taken aback indeed. 

Yes; everyone tells me exactly what they have 
done wrong; and that without knowing it them- 
selves. So there is no use trying to hide anything 
from me. ]^ow go, and be a good boy, and I will 
put no more pebbles in your mouth, if you put 
none in other creatures’.” 

I did not know there was any harm in it,” 
said Tom. 

20. Then you know now. People continually 
say that to me : but I tell them, if you don’t know 
that fire burns, that is no reason that it should not 
burn you; and if you don’t know that dirt breeds 
fever, that is no reason why the fevers should not 
kill you. The lobster did not know that there was 
any harm in getting into the lobster-pot; but it 
caught him all the same.” 

Dear me,” thought Tom, she knows every- 
thing! ” And so she did, indeed. 


18 


THE WATER-BABIES 


And so, if you do not know that things are 
wrong, that is no reason why you should not be 
punished for them; though not as much, not as 
much, my little man ’’ (and the lady looked very 
kindly, after all), as if you did know.’’ 

21. Well, you are a little hard on a poor lad,” 
said Tom. 

E'ot at all; I am the best friend you ever had 
in all your life. But I will tell you ; I cannot help 
punishing people when they do wrong. I like it 
no more than they do ; I am often very, very sorry 
for them, poor things: but I cannot help it. If I 
tried not to do it, I should do it all the same. For 
I work by machinery, just like an engine; and am 
full of wheels and springs inside; and am wound 
up very carefully, so that I cannot help going.” 

Was it long ago since they wound you up? ” 
asked Tom. For he thought, the cunning little 
fellow, She will run down some day: or they 
may forget to wind her up, as old Grimes used to 
forget to wind up his watch when he came in from 
the public-house; and then I shall be safe.” 

22. I was wound up once and for all, so long 
ago that I forget all about it.” 

Dear me,” said Tom, you must have been 
made a long time ! ” 

I never was made, my child; and I shall go for 


A FAIEY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 79 

ever and ever; for I am as old as Eternity, and 
yet as young as Time/’ 

23. And there came over the lady’s face a very 
curious expression — very solemn, and very sad; 
and yet very, very sweet. And she looked up and 
away, as if she were gazing through the sea, and 
through the sky, at something far, far off; and as 
she did so, there came such a quiet, tender, patient, 
hopeful smile over her face that Tom thought for 
the moment that she did not look ugly at all. And 
no more she did; for she was like a great many 
people who have not a pretty feature in their faces, 
and yet are lovely to behold, and draw little chil- 
dren’s hearts to them at once; because, though the 
house is plain enough, yet from the windows a 
beautiful and good spirit is looking forth. 

24. And Tom smiled in her face, she looked so 
pleasant for the moment. And the strange fairy 
smiled too, and said : 

Yes. You thought me very ugly just now, 
did you not? ” 

Tom hung down his head, and got very red 
about the ears. 

And I am very ugly. I am the ugliest fairy 
in the world; and I shall be, till people behave 
themselves as they ought to do. And then I 
shall grow as handsome as my sister, who is the 


80 


THE WATER-BABIES 


loveliest fairy in the world; and her name is Mrs. 
Doasyouwouldbedoneby. So she begins where I 
end, and I begin where she ends; and those who 
will not listen to her must listen to me, as you 
will see. And now do you be a good boy, and do 
as you would be done by, which they did not; and 
then, when my sister, Madame Doasyouwouldbe- 
doneby, comes on Sunday, perhaps she will take 
notice of you, and teach you how to behave. She 
understands that better than I do.’’ And so she 
went. 

25. Tom determined to be a very good boy all 
Saturday; and he was; for he never frightened 
one crab, nor tickled any live corals, nor put stones 
into the sea anemones’ mouths, to make them fancy 
they had got a dinner; and when Sunday morn- 
ing came, sure enough, Mrs. Doasyouwouldbe- 
doneby came too. Whereat all the little children 
began dancing and clapping their hands, and Tom 
danced too with all his might. 

26. And as for the pretty lady, I cannot tell you 
what the color of her hair was, or of her eyes: no 
more could Tom; for, when anyone looks at her, 
all they can think of is, that she has the sweetest, 
kindest, tenderest, funniest, merriest face they ever 
saw, or want to see. But Tom saw that she was a 
very tall woman, as tall as her sister; but instead 


A FAIEY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


81 


of being gnarly and horny, and scaly, and prickly, 
like her, she was the most nice, soft, fat, smooth, 
pussy, cuddly, delicious creature who ever nursed 
a baby ; and she understood babies thoroughly, for 
she had plenty of her own, whole rows and regi- 
ments of them, and has to this day. And all her 
delight was, whenever she had a spare moment, to 
play with babies, in which she showed herself a 
woman of sense; for babies are the best company, 
and the pleasantest playfellows, in the world; at 
least, so all the wise people in the world think. 

27. And therefore, when the children saw her, 
they naturally all caught hold of her, and pulled 
her, till she sat down on a stone, and climbed into 
her lap, and clung round her neck, and caught hold 
of her hands; and then they all put their thumbs 
into their mouths, and began cuddling and purring 
like so many kittens, as they ought to have done, 
while those who could get nowhere else sat down 
on the sand, and cuddled her feet — for no one, you 
know, wears shoes in the water, except horrid old 
bathing-women, who are afraid of the water-babies 
pinching their horny toes. And Tom stood staring 
at them; for he could not understand what it was 
all about. 

28. And who are you, you little darling? ’’ she 
said. 

% 


82 


THE WATER-BABIES 


Oh, that is the new baby!’’ they all cried, 
pulling their thumbs out of their mouths; and he 
never had any mother,” and they all put their 
thumbs back again, for they did not wish to lose 
any time. 

Then I will be his mother, and he shall have 
the very best place; so get out, all of you, this 
moment.” 

But she took Tom in her arms, and laid him in 
the softest place of all, and kissed him, and patted 
him, and talked' to him, tenderly and low, such 
things as he had never heard before in his life; 
and Tom looked up into her eyes, and loved 
her, and loved, till he fell fast asleep from pure 
love. 

29. And when he woke she was telling the chil- 
dren a story. And what story did she tell them? 
One story she told them, which begins every 
Christmas Eve, and yet never ends at all for ever 
and ever; and, as she went on, the children took 
their thumbs out of their mouths and listened quite 
seriously; but not sadly at all; for she never told 
them anything sad; and Tom listened too, and 
never grew tired of listening. And he listened so 
long that he fell fast asleep again, and, when he 
woke, the lady was nursing him still. 

30. Don’t go away,” said little Tom. This 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


83 


is so nice. I never liad anyone to cuddle me 
before.” 

Don’t go away,” said all the cliildren; yon 
have not sung us one song.” 

Well, I have time for only one. So what shall 
it be? ” 

The doll you lost! The doll you lost! ” cried 
all the babies at once. 

So the strange fairy sang: 

“ I once had a sweet little doll, dears, 

The prettiest doll in the world ; 

Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears, 

And her hair was so charmingly curled, 

But I lost my poor little doll, dears, 

As I played in the heath one day ; 

And I cried for her more than a week, dears. 

But I never could find where she lay. 

“ I found my poor little doll, dears. 

As I played in the heath one day : 

Folks say she is terribly changed, dears. 

For her paint is all washed away. 

And her arm trodden off by the cows, dears, 

And her hair not the least bit curled : 

Yet, for old sakes’ sake she is still, dears. 

The prettiest doll in the world.” 

i^ow,” said the fairy to Tom, will you be a 
good boy for my sake, and torment no more sea- 
beasts till I come back?” 

And you will cuddle me again?” said poor 
little Tom. 


84 


THE WATER-BABIES 


Of course I will, you little duck. I should 
like to take you with me and cuddle you all the 
way, only I must not;’’ and away she went. 

So Tom really tried to be a good boy, and tor- 
mented no sea-beasts after that as long as he lived ; 
and he is quite alive, I assure you, still. 

Oh, how good little boys ought to be who have 
kind pussy mammas to cuddle them and tell them 
stories; and how afraid they ought to be of grow- 
ing naughty, and bringing tears into their mam- 
mas’ pretty eyes! 


CHAPTER YI 

1. How you may fancy that Tom was quite 
good, when he had everything that he could want 
or wish: but you would be very much mistaken. 
Being quite comfortable is a very good thing; but 
it does not make people good. Indeed, it some- 
times makes them naughty. And I am very sorry 
to say that this happened to little Tom. For he 
grew so fond of the sea-bullseyes and sea-lolli- 
pops®^ that his foolish little head could think of 
nothing else : and he was always longing for more, 
and wondering when the strange lady would come 
again and give him some, and what she would give 


6’’ Lollipops : Sweets, especially candy. 


A FAIEY TALE FOB A LAND-BABY 


85 


him, and how much, and whether she would give 
him more than the others. And he thought of 
nothing hut lollipops by day, and dreamt of noth- 
ing else by night — and what happened then ? 

2. That he began to watch the lady to see where 
she kept the sweet things: and began hiding, and 
sneaking, and following her about, and pretending 
to be looking the other way, or going after some- 
thing else, till he found out that she kept them in 
a beautiful mother-of-pearl cabinet away in a 
deep crack of the rocks. 

3. And he longed to go to the cabinet, and yet 
he was afraid; and then he longed again, and was 
less afraid; and at last, by continual thinking 
about it, he longed so violently that he was not 
afraid at all. And one night, when all the other 
children were asleep, and he could not sleep for 
thinking of lollipops, he crept away among the 
rocks, and got to the cabinet, and behold! it was 
open. 

4. But, when he saw all the nice things inside, 
instead of being delighted, he was quite frightened, 
and wished he had never come there. And then 
he would only touch them, and he did; and then 
he would only taste one, and he did; and then he 
would only eat one, and he did ; and then he would 
only eat two, and then three, and so on; and then 


86 


THE WATER-BABIES 


he was terrified lest she should come and catch 
him, and began gobbling them down so fast that 
he did not taste them, or have any pleasure in 
them; and then he felt sick, and would have only 
one more; and then only one more again; and so 
on till he had eaten them all up. 

And all the while, close behind him, stood Mrs. 
Bedonebyasyoudid. 

5. Some people may say. But why did she not 
keep her cupboard locked? Well, I know. It 
may seem a very strange thing, but she never does 
keep her cupboard locked; everyone may go and 
taste for themselves, and fare accordingly. It is 
very odd, but so it is ; and I am quite sure that she 
knows best. Perhaps she wishes people to keep 
their fingers out of the fire, by having them burned. 

6. So she just said nothing at all about the 
matter, not even when Tom came next day with 
the rest for sweet things. He was horribly afraid 
of coming; but he was still more afraid of staying 
away, lest anyone should suspect him. He was 
dreadfully afraid, too, lest there should be no 
sweets — as was to be expected, he having eaten 
them all — and lest then the fairy should inquire 
who had taken them. But, behold! she pulled 
out just as many as ever, which astonished Tom, 
and frightened him still more. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


87 


7. And, when the fairy looked him full in the 
face, he shook from head to foot: however, she 
gave him his share like the rest, and he thought 
within himself that she could not have found him 
out. 

But, when he put the sweets into his mouth, he 
hated the taste of them; and they made him so 
sick that he had to get away as fast as he could; 
and terribly sick he was, and very cross and un- 
happy, all the week after. 

8. Then, when the next week came, he had his 
share again; and again the fairy looked him full 
in the face; but more sadly than she had ever 
looked. And he could not bear the sweets: but 
took them again in spite of himself. 

And when Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby came, 
he wanted to be cuddled like the rest; but she said 
very seriously: 

“ I should like to cuddle you ; but I cannot, you 
are so horny and prickly.’’ 

And Tom looked at himself : and he was all over 
prickles, just like a sea-egg. 

9. Which was quite natural; for you must 
know and believe that people’s souls make their 
bodies just as a snail makes its shell (I am not jok- 
ing, my little man; I am in serious, solemn ear- 
nest). And therefore^ when Tom’s soul grew all 


88 


THE WATER-BABIES 


prickly with naughty tempers, his body could not 
help growing prickly too, so that nobody would 
cuddle him, or play with him, or even like to look 
at him. 

What could Tom do now but go away and hide 
in a comer and cry? For nobody would play with 
him, and he knew full well why. 

10. And he was so miserable all that week that 
when the ugly fairy came and looked at him once 
more full in the face, more seriously and sadly 
than ever, he could stand it no longer, and thmst 
the sweetmeats away, saying, E^o, I don’t want 
any: I can’t bear them now,” and then burst out 
crying, poor little man, and told Mrs. Bedonebyas- 
youdid every word as it happened. 

He was horribly frightened when he had done 
so; for he expected her to punish him very 
severely. But, instead, she only took him up and 
kissed him. 

I will forgive you, little man,” she said. I 
always forgive everyone the moment they tell me 
the truth of their own accord.” 

11. Then you will take away all these nasty 
prickles ? ” 

“ That is a very different matter. You put 
them there yourself, and only you can take them 
away.” 


A FAIRY TALE FOE A LAND-BABY 89 

But how can I do that? ’’ asked Tom, crying 
afresh. 

Well, I think it is time for you to go to school; 
so I shall fetch you a schoolmistress, who will teach 
you how to get rid of your prickles.’’ And so she 
went away. 

12. Tom was frightened at the notion of a 
schoolmistress; for he thought she would certainly 
come with a birch-rod or a cane; but he comforted 
himself, at last, that she might be something like 
the old woman in Vendale — which she was not in 
the least; for, when the fairy brought her, she was 
the most beautiful little girl that ever was seen, 
with long curls floating behind her like a golden 
cloud, and long robes floating all round her like a 
silver one. 

There he is,” said the fairy; and you must 
teach him to be good, whether you like or not.” 

I know,” said the little girl; but she did not 
seem quite to like, for she put her Anger in her 
mouth, and looked at Tom under her brows; and 
Tom put his Anger in his mouth, and looked at her 
under his brows, for he was horribly ashamed of 
himself. 

13. The little girl seemed hardly to know how 
to begin; and perhaps she would never have be- 
gun at all if poor Tom had not burst out crying, 


90 


THE WATER-BABIES 


and begged her to teach him to be good and help 
him to cure his prickles; and at that she grew SO 
tender-hearted that she began teaching him as 
prettily as ever child was taught in the world. 

14. And what did the little girl teach Tom? 
She taught him, first, what you have been taught 
ever since you said your first prayers at your 
mother’s knees; but she taught him much more 
simply. For the lessons in that world, my child, 
have no such hard words in them as the lessons in 
this, and therefore the water-babies like them bet- 
ter than you like your lessons, and long to learn 
them more and more; and grown men cannot 
puzzle nor quarrel over their meaning, as they do 
here on land. 

15. So she taught Tom every day in the week; 
only on Sundays she always went away home, and 
the kind fairy took her place. And before she 
had taught Tom many Sundays, his prickles had 
vanished quite away, and his skin was smooth and 
clean again. 

“ Dear me! ” said the little girl; why, I know 
you now. You are the very same little chimney- 
sweep who came into my bedroom.” 

Dear me! ” cried Tom. And I know you, 
too, now. You are the very little white lady 
whom I saw in bed,” And he jumped at her, and 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND -BABY 


91 


longed to hng and kiss her; but did not, re- 
membering that she was a lady born; so he only 
jumped round and round her till he was quite 
tired. 

16. And then they began telling each other all 
their story — how he had got into the water, and 
she had fallen over the rock; and how he had 
swum down to the sea, and how she had flown out 
of the window; and how this, that, and the other, 
till it was all talked out: and then they both be- 
gan over again, and I can’t say which of the two 
talked fastest. 

And then they set to work at their lessons again, 
and both liked them so well that they went on well 
till seven full years were past and gone. 

17. You may fancy that Tom was quite content 
and happy all those seven years; but the truth is, 
he was not. He had always one thing on his mind, 
and that was — where little Ellie went, when she 
went home on Sundays. 

To a very beautiful place, she said. 

All that good little Ellie could say was, that it 
was worth all the rest of the world put together. 
And of course that only made Tom the more anx- 
ious to go likewise. 

Miss Ellie,” he said at last, I will know why 
I cannot go with you when you go home on Sun- 


92 


THE WATER-BABIES 


days, or I shall have no peace, and give you none 
either.’’ 

You must ask the fairies that.” 

18. So when the fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, 
came next, Tom asked her. 

Little boys who are only fit to play with sea- 
beasts cannot go there,” she said. Those who 
go there must go first where they do not like, and 
do what they do not like, and help somebody they 
do not like. Come here, and see what happens to 
people who do only what is pleasant.” 

And she took out of one of her cupboards (she 
had all sorts of mysterious cupboards in the cracks 
of the rocks) the most wonderful waterproof book, 
full of such photographs as never were seen. 

19. And on the title-page was written, The 
History of the great and famous nation of the 
Doasyoulikes, who came away from the country of 
Hardwork, because they wanted to play on the 
Jews’ harp all day long.” 

In the first picture they saw these Doasyoulikes 
living in the land of Keadymade, at the foot of the 
Happy-go-lucky Mountains, where flapdoodle 
grows wild ; and if you want to know what that is, 
you must read Peter Simple.®® 


68 Peter Simple : A story by Frederick Marryat (1792-1848), an Eng- 
lish novelist and naval captain. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 93 

20. They lived very much such a life as those 
jolly old Greeks in Sicily, whom you may see 
painted on the ancient vases, and really there 
seemed to be great excuses for them, for they had 
no need to work. 

Instead of houses they lived in the beautiful 
caves of tufa,®® and bathed in the warm springs 
three times a day; and, as for clothes, it was so 
warm there that the gentlemen walked about in 
little beside a cocked hat and a pair of straps, or 
some light summer tackle of that kind; and the 
ladies all gathered gossamer in autumn (when they 
were not too lazy) to make their winter dresses. 

21. They were very fond of music, but it was 
too much trouble to learn the piano or the violin; 
and as for dancing, that would have been too great 
an exertion. So they sat on ant-hills all day long, 
and played on the J ews^ harp ; and, if the ants bit 
them, why they just got up and went to the next 
ant-hill, till they were bitten there likewise. 

22. And they sat under the flapdoodle-trees, and 
let the flapdoodle drop into their mouths; and 
under the vines, and squeezed the grape-juice down 
their throats; and, if any little pigs ran about 
ready roasted, crying, Come and eat me,’’ as was 
their fashion in that country, they waited till the 


69 Tufa : A soft, porous stone. 


94 


THE WATER-BABIES 


pigs ran against their mouths, and then took a bite, 
and were content, just as so many oysters would 
have been. 

They needed no weapons, for no enemies ever 
came near their land; and no tools, for everything 
was readymade to their hand; and the stem old 
fairy IsTecessity never came near them to hunt them 
up, and make them use their wits, or die. 

23. And so on, and so on, and so on, till there 
were never such comfortable, easy-going, happy- 
go-lucky people in the world. 

Well, that is a jolly life,’’ said Tom. 

You think so? ” said the fairy. Do you see 
that great peaked mountain there behind,” said 
the fairy, with smoke coming out of its top ? ” 

Yes.” 

And do you see all those ashes, and slag, and 
cinders lying about ? ” 

Yes.” 

Then turn over the next five hundred years, 
and you will see what happens next.” 

24. And behold the mountain had blown up 
like a barrel of gunpowder, and then boiled over 
like a kettle; whereby one-third of the Doasyou- 
likes were blown into the air, and another third 
were smothered in ashes; so that there was only 
one-third left. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


95 


You see/’ said the fairy, what comes of liv- 
ing on a burning mountain.” 

Oh, why did you not warn them? ” said little 
Elbe. 

25. 1 did warn them all that I could. I let 
the smoke come out of the mountain; and wher- 
ever there is smoke there is fire. And I laid the 
ashes and cinders all about; and wherever there 
are cinders, cinders may be again. But they did 
not like to face facts, my dears, as very few people 
do; and so they invented a cock-and-bull story, 
which, I am sure, I never told them, that the smoke 
was the breath of a giant, whom some god or other 
had buried under the mountain; and that the 
cinders were what the dwarfs roasted the little pigs 
whole with; and other nonsense of that kind. 
And, when folks are in that humor, I cannot teach 
them, save by the good old birch-rod.” 

26. And then she turned over the next five hun- 
dred years: and there were the remnant of the Do- 
asyoulikes, doing as they liked, as before. They 
were too lazy to move away from the mountain; 
so they said. If it has blown up once, that is all the 
more reason that it should not blow up again. 
And they were few in number: but they only said. 
The more the merrier, but the fewer the better 
fare. However, that was not quite true; for all 


96 


THE WATER BABIES 


the flapdoodle-trees were killed by the volcano, and 
they had eaten all the roast pigs, who, of course, 
could not be expected to have little ones. So they 
had to live very hard, on nuts and roots which they 
scratched out of the ground with sticks. Some of 
them talked of sowing corn, as their ancestors used 
to do, before they came into the land of Ready- 
made; but they had forgotten how to make plows 
(they had forgotten even how to make Jews’ harps 
by this time), and had eaten all the seed-corn which 
they brought out of the land of Hardwork years 
since; and of course it was too much trouble to go 
away and And more. So they lived miserably on 
roots and nuts. 

27. Why,” said Tom, they are growing no 
better than savages.” 

And look how ugly they are all getting,” said 
Elbe. 

And she turned over the next flve hundred 
years. And there they were all living up in trees, 
and making nests to keep ofl the rain. And under- 
neath the trees lions were prowling about. 

Why,” said Elbe, the lions seem to have 
eaten a good many of them, for there are very few 
left now.” 

Yes,” said the fairy; you see it was only the 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


97 


strongest and most active ones who could climb the 
trees and so escaped’ 

But what great, hulking, broad-shouldered 
chaps they are,” said Tom; they are a rough lot 
as ever I saw.” 

28. Yes, they are getting very strong now; 
for the ladies will not marry any but the very 
strongest and fiercest gentlemen, who can help 
them up the trees out of the lions’ way.” 

And she turned over the next five hundred 
years. And in that they were fewer still, and 
stronger, and fiercer; but their feet had changed 
shape very oddly, for they laid hold of the branches 
with their great toes, as if they had been thumbs, 
just as a Hindoo tailor uses his toes to thread his 
needle. 

The children were very much surprised, and 
asked the fairy whether that was her doing. 

29. Yes, and no,” she said, smiling. It was 
only those who could use their feet as well as their 
hands who could get a good living: or, indeed, get 
married; so that they got the best of everything, 
and starved out all the rest; and those who are left 
keep up a regular breed of toe-thumb-men, as a 
breed of short-homs, or skye-terriers, or fancy 
pigeons is kept up.” 


98 


THE WATER-BABIES 


But there is a hairy one among them/’ said 
Ellie. 

Ah ! ” said the fairy, that will be a great 
man in his time, and chief of all the tribe.” 

30. And, when she turned over the next five 
hundred years, it was true. 

Eor this hairy chief had had hairy children, and 
they had hairier children still; and everyone 
wished to marry hairy husbands, and have hairy 
children too ; for the climate was growing so damp 
that none but the hairy ones could live: all the 
rest coughed and sneezed, and had sore throats, and 
went into consumptions, before they could grow up 
to be men and women. 

Then the fairy turned over the next five hun- 
dred years. And they were fewer still. 

Why, there is one on the ground picking up 
roots,” said Ellie, and he cannot walk upright.” 

31. E'o more he could; for, in the same way that 
the shape of their feet had altered, the shape of 
their backs had altered also. 

Why,” cried Tom, I declare they are all 
apes.” 

Something fearfully like it, poor foolish crea- 
tures,” said the fairy. They are grown so stupid 
now, that they can hardly think; for none of them 
have used their wits for many hundred years. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


99 


They have almost forgotten, too, how to talk. For 
each stupid child forgot some of the words it heard 
from its stupid parents, and had not wits enough 
to make fresh words for itself. Beside, they are 
grown so fierce and suspicious and brutal that they 
keep out of each other’s way, and mope and sulk 
in the dark forests, never hearing each other’s 
voice, till they have forgotten almost what speech 
is like. I am afraid they will all be apes very 
soon, and all by doing only what they liked.” 

32. And in the next five hundred years they 
were all dead and gone, by bad food and wild beasts 
and hunters; all except one tremendous old fellow 
with jaws like a jack, who stood full seven feet 
high; and M. Du Chaillu®® came up to him, and 
shot him, as he stood roaring and thumping his 
breast. And he remembered that his ancestors 
had once been men, and tried to say, Am I not a 
man and a brother? ” but had forgotten how to 
use his tongue ; and then he had tried to call for a 
doctor, but he had forgotten the word for one. So 
all he said was Ubboboo ! ” and died. 

33. And that was the end of the great and jolly 
nation of the Doasyoulikes. And when Tom and 
Elbe came to the end of the book, they looked very 
sad and solemn. 


•0 M. du Chaillu ; (1836—) An African explorer. 


100 


THE WATER-BABIES 


But could you not have saved them from be- 
coming apes ? ’’ said little Elbe, at last. 

At first, my dear; if only they would have 
behaved like men, and set to work to do what they 
did not like. But the longer they waited, and be- 
haved like the dumb beasts, who only do what they 
like, the stupider and clumsier they grew; till at 
last they were past all cure, for they had thrown 
their own wits away. It is such things as this that 
help to make me so ugly that I know not when I 
shall grow fair.’’ 

And where are they all now? ” asked Elbe. 

Exactly where they ought to be, my dear.” 

34. ‘^Yes!” said the fairy, solemnly, half to 
herself, as she closed the wonderful book. Folks 
say now that I can make beasts into men, by cir- 
cumstance, and selection, and competition, and so 
forth. Well, perhaps they are right; and perhaps, 
again, they are wrong. That is one of the seven 
things which I am forbidden to tell. Whatever 
their ancestors were, men they are; and I advise 
them to behave as such, and act accordingly. But 
let them recollect this, that there are two sides to 
every question, and a downhill as well as an uphill 
road; and, if I can turn beasts into men, I can, by 
the same laws of circumstance, and selection, and 
competition, turn men into beasts. You were very 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


101 


near being turned into a beast once or twice, little 
Tom. Indeed, if you had not made up your mind 
to go on this journey, and see the world, like an 
Englishman, I am not sure but that you would 
have ended as an eft in a pond. 

Oh, dear me! ’’ said Tom; sooner than that, 
and be all over slime. I’ll go this minute, if it is 
to the world’s end.” 


CHAPTER YII 

1. How,” said Tom, I am ready to be off, if 
it’s to the world’s end.” 

Ah ! ” said the fairy, that is a brave, good 
boy. But you must go farther than the world’s 
end, if you want to find Mr. Grimes; for he is at 
the Other-end-of-Howhere. You must go to 
Shiny Wall, and through the white gate that never 
was opened; and then you will come to Peacepool, 
and Mother Carey’s Haven, where the good whales 
go when they die. And there Mother Carey will 
tell you the way to the Other-end-of-Howhere, and 
there you will find Mr. Grimes.” 

2. Oh, dear!” said Tom. But I do not 
know my way to Shiny Wall, or where it is at all.” 

Little boys must take the trouble to find out 


102 


THE WATER-BABIES 


things for themselves, or they will never grow to 
be men; so that you must ask all the beasts in the 
sea and the birds in the air, and if you have been 
good to them, some of them will tell you the way 
to Shiny Wall/’ 

Well,” said Tom, it will be a long journey, 
so I had better start at once. Good-by, Miss Ellie ; 
you know I am getting a big boy, and I must go 
out and see the world.” 

I know you must,” said Ellie ; but you will 
not forget me, Tom. I shall wait here till you 
come.” 

3. And she shook hands with him, and bade him 
good-by. Tom longed very much again to kiss 
her; but he thought it would not be respectful, 
considering she was a lady born; so he promised 
not to forget her: but his little whirl-about of a 
head was so full of the notion of going out to see 
the world that it forgot her in five minutes: how- 
ever, though his head forgot her, I am glad to say 
his heart did not. 

So he asked all the beasts in the sea, and all the 
birds in the air, but none of them knew the way to 
Shiny Wall. For why? He was still too far 
down south. 

4. And he swam northward again, day after 
day, till at last he met the King of the Herrings, 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


103 


with a curry-comb growing out of his nose, and a 
sprat in his mouth for a cigar, and asked him the 
way to Shiny Wall; so he bolted his sprat head 
foremost, and said: 

If I were you, young gentleman, I should go 
to the Allalonestone, and ask the last of the Gair- 
fowl.®^ She is of a very ancient clan, very nearly 
as ancient as my own; and knows a good deal 
which these modern upstarts don’t, as ladies of old 
houses are likely to do.” 

Tom asked his way to her, and the King of the 
Herrings told him very kindly, for he was a cour- 
teous old gentleman of the old school, though he 
was horribly ugly, and strangely bedizened®^ too, 
like the old dandies who lounge in the club-house 
windows. 

But just as Tom had thanked him and set off, 
he called after him: Hi! I say, can you fly? ” 

'' I never tried,” says Tom. “ Why? ” 

5. Because, if you can, I should advise you to 
say nothing to the old lady about it. There; take 
a hint. Good-by.” 

And away Tom went for seven days and seven 
nights due northwest, till he came to a great cod- 
bank, the like of which he never saw before. The 

Gair-fowl : The great auk: a diving bird of northern eeas, recently 
extinct. 

63 Bedizened ; Dressed in tawdy finery. 


104 


THE AVATER-BABIES 


great cod lay below in tens of thousands, and 
gobbled shell-fish all day long; and the blue sharks 
roved above in hundreds, and gobbled them when 
they came up. So they ate, and ate, and ate each 
other, as they had done since the making of the 
world; for no man had come here yet to catch 
them, and find out how rich old Mother Carey is. 

6. And there he saw the last of the Gairfowl, 
standing up on the Allalonestone, all alone. And 
a very grand old lady she was, full three feet high, 
and bolt upright, like some old Highland chief- 
tainess. She had on a black velvet gown, and a 
white pinner and apron, and a very high bridge to 
her nose (which is a sure mark of high breeding), 
and a large pair of white spectacles on it, which 
made her look rather odd: but it was the ancient 
fashion of her house. 

7. Instead of wings, she had two little feathery 
arms, with which she fanned herself, and com- 
plained of the dreadful heat; and she kept on 
crooning an old song to herself, which she learnt 
when she was a little baby-bird, long ago : 

“ Two little birds they sat on a stone, 

One swam away, and then there was one. 

With a fal-lal-la-lady. 

“ The other swam after, and then there was none, 
And so the poor stone was left all alone ; 

With a fal-lal-la-lady.” 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 105 

It was flew ’’ away, properly, and not swam 
away: but, as she could not fly, she had a right to 
alter it. However, it was a very fit song for her 
to sing, because she was a lady herself. 

Tom came up to her very humbly, and made his 
bow; and the first thing she said was: 

Have you wings? Can you fly? 

Oh, dear, no, ma’am; I should not think of 
such a thing,” said cunning little Tom. 

8. Then I shall have great pleasure in talking 
to you, my dear. It is quite refreshing nowadays 
to see anything without wings. They must all 
have wings, forsooth, now, every new upstart sort 
of bird, and fly. What can they want with flying, 
and raising themselves above their proper station 
in life? In the days of my ancestors no birds ever 
thought of having wings, and did very well with- 
out; and now they all laugh at me because I keep 
to the good old fashion. Why, the very mar- 
rocks®* and dovekies have got wings, the vulgar 
creatures, and poor little ones enough they are; 
and my own cousins too, the razor-bills, who are 
gentlefolk born, and ought to know better than to 
ape their inferiors.” 

9. And so she was running on, while Tom tried 
to get in a word edgeways ; and at last he did, when 


MarrQcks, Dovekies, Auks : diving birds of northern seas. 


106 


THE WATER-BABIES 


the old lad j got out of breath, and began fanning 
herself again; and then he asked if she knew the 
way to Shiny Wall. 

Shiny Wall? Who should know better than 
I? We all came from Shiny Wall, thousands of 
years ago, when it was decently cold, and the 
climate was fit for gentlefolk; but now, what with 
the heat, and what with these vulgar winged things 
who fly up and down and eat everything, so that 
gentlepeople’s hunting is all spoilt, and one really 
cannot get one’s living, or hardly venture off the 
rock for fear of being fiown against by some crea- 
ture that would not have dared to come within a 
mile of one a thousand years ago — ^what was I 
saying? 

10. Why, we have quite gone down in the 
world, my deai’, and have nothing left but our 
honor. And I am the last of my family. A 
friend of mine and I came and settled on this rock 
when we were young, to be out of the way of low 
people. Once we were a great nation, and spread 
over all the N^orthern Isles. But men shot us so, 
and knocked us on the head, and took our eggs — 
why, if you will believe it, they say that on the 
coast of Labrador the sailors used to lay a plank 
from the rock on board the thing called their ship, 
and drive us along the plank by hundreds, till we 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 107 

tumbled doAvn into the ship’s waist in heaps; and 
then, I suppose, they ate us, the nasty fellows! 
Well — but — what was I saying? 

11. At last, there were none of us left, except 
on the old Gairf owl skerry, just off the Iceland 
coast, up which no man could climb. Even there 
we had no peace; for one day, when I was quite a 
young girl, the land rocked, and the sea boiled, and 
the sky grew dark, and all the air was filled with 
smoke and dust, and down tumbled the old Gair- 
fowlskerry into the sea. The dovekies and mar- 
rocks, of course, all flew away; but we were too 
proud to do that. Some of us were dashed to 
pieces, and some drowned; and those who were 
left got away to Eldey, and the dovekies tell me 
they are all dead now, and that another Gairfowl- 
skerry has risen out of the sea close to the old one, 
but that it is such a poor flat place that it is not 
safe to live on: and so here I am left alone.” 

12. This was the Gairfowl’s story, and, strange 
as it may seem, it is every word of it true. 

If you only had had wings!” said Tom; 
then you might all have flown away too.” 

Yes, young gentleman: and if people are not 
gentlemen and ladies, and forget that noblesse 
oblige , they will find it as easy to get on in the 

Noblesse oblige : Nobility obliges ; nobility of birth demands 
nobility of deeds. 


108 


THE WATER-BABIES 


world as other people who don’t care what they do. 
Why, if I had not recollected that noblesse oblige, 
I should not have been all alone now.” And the 
poor old lady sighed. 

How was that, ma’am? ” 

13. Why, my dear, a gentleman came hither 
with me, and after we had been here some time, he 
wanted to marry — in fact, he actually proposed to 
me. Well, I can’t blame him; I was young, and 
very handsome then, I don’t deny: but you see, I 
could not hear of such a thing, because he was my 
deceased sister’s husband, you see ? ” 

Of course not, ma’am,” said Tom; though, of 
course, he knew nothing about it. She was very 
much diseased, I suppose? ” 

14. You do not understand me, my dear. I 
mean, that being a lady, and with right and honor- 
able feelings, as our house always has had, I felt 
it my duty to snub him, and howk him, and peck 
him continually, to keep him at his proper dis- 
tance and, to tell the truth, I once pecked him a 
little too hard, poor fellow, and he tumbled back- 
ward off the rock, and — really, it was very unfor- 
tunate, but it was not my fault — a shark coming 
by saw him flapping, and snapped him up. And 
since then I have lived all alone: 

“ With a fal-lal-la-lady. • 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


109 


And soon I shall be gone, my little dear, and 
nobody will miss me; and then the poor stone will 
be left all alone/’ 

But, please, which is the way to Shiny Wall? ” 
said Tom. 

15. Oh, you must go, my little dear — you 
must go. Let me see — I am sure — that is — really, 
my poor old brains are getting quite puzzled. Do 
you know, my little dear, I am afraid, if you want 
to know, you must ask some of these vulgar birds 
about, for I have quite forgotten.” 

And the poor old Gairfowl began to cry tears of 
pure oil; and Tom was quite sorry for her; and for 
himself too, for he was at his wits’ end whom to 
ask. 

But by there came a flock of petrels, who are 
Mother Carey’s own chickens; and Tom thought 
them much prettier than Lady Gairfowl, and so 
perhaps they were; for Mother Carey had had a 
great deal of fresh experience between the time 
that she invented the Gairfowl and the time that 
she invented them. They flitted along like a flock 
of black swallows, and hopped and skipped from 
wave to wave, lifting up their little feet behind 
them so daintily, and whistling to each other so 
tenderly, that Tom fell in love with them at once, 
and called them to know the way to Shiny Wall. 


110 


THE WATER-BABIES 


16. Shiny Wall? Do you want Shiny Wall? 
Then come with us, and we will show you. We 
are Mother Carey^s own chickens, and she sends us 
out over all the seas, to show the good birds the 
way home.’’ 

Tom was delighted, and swam off to them, after 
he had made his bow to the Gairfowl. But she 
would not return his bow: but held herself bolt 
upright, and wept tears of oil as she sang: 

“ And so the poor stone was left all alone ; 

With a fal-lal-la-lady.” 

17. And now Tom was all agog to start for 
Shiny Wall; but the petrels said no. They must 
go first to Allfowlsness, and wait there for the great 
gathering of all the sea-birds, before they start for 
their summer breeding-places far away in the 
^sTorthern isles; and there they would be sure to 
find some birds which were going to Shiny Wall: 
but where Allfowlsness was, he must promise never 
to tell, lest men should go there and shoot the birds, 
and stuff them, and put them into stupid museums, 
instead of leaving them to play and breed and work 
in Mother Carey’s water-garden, where they ought 
to be. 

So where Allfowlsness is nobody must know; 
and all that is to be said about it is, that Tom 
waited there many days. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


111 


18. And after a while the birds began to gather 
at Allfowlsness, in thousands and tens of. thou- 
sands, blackening all the air; swans and brant 
geese, harlequins and eiders, harolds and garga- 
neys, smews and goosanders, divers and loons, 
grebes and dovekies, auks and razor-bills, gannets 
and petrels, skuas and terns, with gulls beyond all 
naming or numbering; and they paddled and 
washed and splashed and combed and brushed 
themselves on the sand, till the shore was white 
with feathers; and they quacked and clucked and 
gabbled and chattered and screamed and whooped 
as they talked over matters with their friends, and 
settled where they were to go and breed that sum- 
mer, till you might have heard them ten miles off. 

19. Then the petrels asked this bird and that 
whether they would take Tom to Shiny Wall: but 
one set was going to Sutherland, and one to the 
Shetlands, and one to IN’orway, and one to Spitz- 
bergen, and one to Iceland, and one to Greenland : 
but none would go to Shiny Wall. So the good- 
natured petrels said that they would show him part 
of the way themselves, but they were only going 
as far as Jan Mayen’s Land; and after that he 
must shift for himself. 

And as Tom and the petrels went northeast- 
ward, it began to blow right hard. 


112 


THE WATER-BABIES 


20. And at last they saw an ugly sight — the 
black side of a great ship, water-logged in the 
trough of the sea. Her funnel and her masts were 
overboard, and swayed and surged under her lee; 
her decks were swept as clean as a bam floor, and 
there was no living soul on board. 

The petrels flew up to her, and wailed round 
her ; for they were very sorry indeed, and also they 
expected to And some salt pork; and Tom 
scrambled on board of her and looked round, 
frightened and sad. 

And there, in a little cot, lashed tight under the 
bulwark, lay a baby fast asleep. 

21. He went up to it, and wanted to wake it; 
but behold, from under the cot out jumped a little 
black and tan terrier dog, and began barking and 
snapping at Tom, and would not let him touch the 
cot. 

Tom knew the dog’s teeth could not hurt him: 
but at least it could rhove him away, and did ; and 
he and the dog fought and struggled, for he 
wanted to help the baby, and did not want to throw 
the poor dog overboard: but as they were strug- 
gling, there came a tall green sea, and walked in 
over the weather side of the ship, and swept them 
all into the waves. 

22. Oh, the baby, the baby! ” screamed Tom: 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 113 

but the next moment he did not scream at all; for 
he saw the cot settling down through the green 
water, with the baby, smiling in it, fast asleep; and 
he saw the fairies come up from below, and carry 
baby and cradle gently down in their soft arms; 
and then he knew it was all right, and that there 
would be a new water-baby in St. Brandan’s Isle. 

23. And the poor little dog? 

Why, after he had kicked and coughed a little, 
he sneezed so hard that he sneezed himself clean 
out of his skin, and turned into a water-dog, and 
jumped and danced round Tom, and ran over the 
crests of the waves, and snapped at the jelly-fish 
and the mackerel, and followed Tom the whole 
way to the Other-end-of-Xowhere. 

Then they went on again, till they began to see 
the peak of Jan Mayen^s Land, standing up like a 
white sugar-loaf, two miles above the clouds. 

And there they fell in with a whole fiock of 
molly-mocks,®^ who were feeding on a dead whale. 

24. These are the fellows to show you the 
way,’’ said Mother Carey’s chickens; we cannot 
help you farther north. We don’t like to get 
among the ice pack, for fear it should nip our toes : 
but the mollys dare fiy anywhere.” 

So the petrels called to the mollys: but they 


«5 Mollymocks (Mallemawks) : Sea birds found in high latitudes. 


114 


THE WATER-BABIES 


were so busy and greedy, gobbling and pecking 
and spluttering and fighting over the blubber, that 
they did not take the least notice. 

Come, come,’’ said the petrels, you lazy, 
greedy lubbers, this young gentleman is going to 
Mother Carey, and if you don’t attend on him, 
you won’t earn your discharge from her, you 
know.” 

Greedy we are,” says a great fat old molly, 

but lazy we aint; and, as for lubbers, we’re no 
more lubbers than you. Let’s have a look at the 
lad.” 

25. And he flapped right into Tom’s face, and 
stared at him in the most impudent way (for the 
molly s are audacious fellows, as all whalers know), 
and then asked him where he hailed from, and 
what land he sighted last. 

And, when Tom told him, he seemed pleased, 
and said he was a good-plucked one to have got so 
far. 

Come along, lads,” he said to the rest, and 
give this little chap a cast over the pack, for 
Mother Carey’s sake. We’ve eaten blubber 
enough for to-day, and we’ll e’en work out a bit of 
our time by helping the lad.” 

26. So the mollys took Tom up on their backs, 
and flew off with him, laughing and joking, and 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 115 

set him and his dog down at the foot of Shiny 
Wall. 

And where is the gate? ’’ asked Tom. 

There is no gate/’ said the mollys. 

'No gate? ” cried Tom, aghast. 

^^I^one; never a crack of one, and that’s the 
whole of the secret, as better fellows, lad, than yon 
have found to their cost; and if there had been, 
they’d have killed by now every right whale that 
swims the sea.” 

What am I to do, then? ” 

Dive under the floe,®® to be sure, if you have 
pluck.” 

I’ve not come so far to turn now,” said Tom; 
so here goes for a header.” 

A lucky voyage to you, lad,” said the mollys; 
we knew you were one of the right sort. So 
good-by.” 

Why don’t you come too? ” asked Tom. 

27. But the mollys only wailed sadly, We 
can’t go yet, we can’t go yet,” and flew away over 
the pack. 

So Tom dived under the great Avhite gate which 
never was opened yet, and went on in black dark- 
ness, at the bottom of the sea, for seven days and 
seven nights. And yet he was not a bit fright- 


Floe : A mass of floating polar ice. 


116 


THE WATER-BABIES 


ened. Why should he he? He was a brave Eng- 
lish lad, whose business is to go out and see all the 
world. 

28. And at last he saw the light, and clear, clear 
water overhead; and up he came a thousand 
fathoms, among clouds of sea-moths, which flut- 
tered round his head. There were moths with 
pink heads and wings and opal bodies, that flapped 
about slowly; moths with brown wings, that 
flapped about quickly; yellow shrimps, that hopped 
and skipped most quickly of all; and jellies of all 
the colors in the world, that neither hopped nor 
skipped, but only dawdled and yawned, and would 
not get out of his way. The dog snapped at them 
till his jaws were tired; but Tom hardly minded 
them at all, he was so eager to get to the top of the 
water and see the pool where the good whales go. 

29. And a very large pool it was, miles and 
miles across, though the air was so clear that the 
ice cliffs on the opposite side looked as if they were 
close at hand. All round it the ice cliffs rose, in 
walls and spires and battlements, and caves and 
bridges, and stories and galleries, in which the ice- 
fairies live, and drive away the storms and clouds, 
that Mother Carey’s pool may lie calm from year’s 
end to year’s end. And the sun acted policeman, 
and walked round outside every day, peeping just 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


117 


over the top of the ice wall, to see that all went 
right; and now and then he played conjuring 
tricks, or had an exhibition of fireworks, to amuse 
the ice-fairies. For he would make himself into 
four or five suns at once, or paint the sky with 
rings and crosses and crescents of white fire, and 
stick himself in the middle of them, and wink at 
the fairies; and I dare say they were very much 
amused; for anything’s fun in the country. 

30. And there the good whales lay, the happy, 
sleepy beasts, upon the still, oily sea. They were 
all right whales, you must know, and tinners, and 
razor-backs, and bottle-noses, and spotted sea-uni- 
corns with long ivory horns. But the sperm 
whales are such raging, ramping, roaring, rum- 
bustious fellows, that, if Mother Carey let them in, 
there would be no more peace in Peacepool. 

Tom swam up to the nearest whale, and asked 
the way to Mother Carey. 

There she sits in the middle,” said the whale. 

Tom looked; but he could see nothing in the 
middle of the pool, but one peaked iceberg: and 
he said so. 

That’s Mother Carey,” said the whale, as you 
will find when you get to her. There she sits mak- 
ing old beasts into new all the year round.” 

31. How does she. do that ? ” 


118 


THE WATER-BABIES 


That’s her concern, not mine,” said the old 
whale. 

I suppose,” said Tom, she cuts up a great 
whale like you into a whole shoal of por- 
poises ? ” 

At which the old whale laughed violently, and 
Tom went on to the iceberg, wondering. 

And, when he came near it, it took the form of 
the grandest old lady he had ever seen — a white 
marble lady, sitting on a white marble throne. 
And from the foot of the throne there swum away, 
out and out into the sea, millions of newborn crea- 
tures, of more shapes and colors than man ever 
dreamed. And they were Mother Carey’s chil- 
dren, whom she makes out of the sea-water all day 
long. 

32. He expected, of course, — like some grown 
people who ought to know better, — to find her snip- 
ping, piecing, fitting, stitching, cobbling, basting, 
filing, planing, hammering, turning, polishing, 
molding, measuring, chiseling, clipping, and so 
forth, as men do when they go to work to make 
anything. 

But, instead of that, she sat quite still with her 
chin upon her hand, looking down into the sea with 
two great grand blue eyes, as blue as the sea itself. 
Her hair was as white as the snow — for she was 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


119 


very, very old — in fact, as old as anything which 
yon are likely to come across, except the difference 
between right and wrong. 

33. And, when she saw Tom, she looked at him 
very kindly. 

What do you want, my little man? It is long 
since I have seen a water-baby here.’’ 

Tom told her his errand, and asked the way to 
the Other-end-of-hTowhere. 

Yon ought to know yourself, for you have 
been there already.” 

Have I, ma’am? I’m sure I forget all about 
it.” 

Then look at me.” 

And, as Tom looked into her great blue eyes, he 
recollected the way perfectly. 

How, was not that strange? 

34. Thank you, ma’am,” said Tom. Then 
I won’t trouble your ladyship any more; I hear 
you are very busy.” 

I am never more busy than I am now,” she 
said, without stirring a finger. 

I heard, ma’am, that you were always making 
new beasts out of old.” 

So people fancy. But I am not going to 
trouble myself to make things, my little dear. I 
sit here and make them make themselves.” 


120 


THE WATER-BABIES 


You are a clever fairy, indeed,’’ thought Tom. 
And he was quite right. 

And now, my pretty little man,” said Mother 
Carey, you are sure you know the way to the 
Other-end-of-Yowhere? ” 

Tom thought; and behold, he had forgotten it 
utterly. 

That is because you took your eyes off me.” 

35. Tom looked at her again, and recollected; 
and then looked away, and forgot in an instant. 

But what am I to do, ma’am? For I can’t 
keep looking at you when I am somewhere else.” 

You must do without me, as most people have 
to do, for nine hundred and ninety-nine thou- 
sandths of tJieir lives; and look at the dog instead; 
for he knows the way well enough, and will not 
forget it. Besides, you may meet some very 
queer-tempered people there, who will not let you 
pass without this passport of mine, which you must 
hang round your neck and take care of; and, of 
course, as the dog will always go behind you, you 
must go the whole way backward.” 

Backward! ” cried Tom. Then I shall not 
be able to see my way.” 

36. On the contrary, if you look forward, you 
will not see a step before you, and be certain to go 
wrong; but, if you look behind you, and watch 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND BABY 


121 


carefully whatever you have passed, and especially 
keep your eye on the dog, who goes by instinct, and 
therefore canh go wrong, then you will know what 
is coming next, as plainly as if you saw it in a look- 
ing glass/’ 

Tom was very much astonished: but he obeyed 
her, for he had learnt always to believe what the 
fairies told him. 

CHAPTEK YIII AND LAST 

1. Now, as soon as Tom had left Peacepool, he 
came to the white lap of the great sea-mother, ten 
thousand fathoms deep ; where she makes world-pap 
all day long, for the steam-giants to knead, and the 
fire-giants to bake, till it has risen and hardened 
into mountain-loaves and island-cakes. 

And there Tom was very near being kneaded up 
in the world-pap, and turned into a fossil water- 
baby. 

For, as he walked along in the silence of the 
sea-twilight, on the soft white ocean floor, he was 
aware of a hissing, and a roaring, and a thumping, 
and a pumping, as of all the steam-engines in the 
world at once. And, when he came near, the 
water grew boiling hot; not that that hurt him in 
the least; but it also grew as foul as gruel; and 


122 


THE WATER-BABIES 


every moment lie stumbled over dead shells, and 
fish, and sharks, and seals, and whales, which had 
been killed by the hot water. 

2. And at last he came to the great sea-serpent 
himself, lying dead at the bottom; and as he was 
too thick to scramble over, Tom had to walk round 
him three-quarters of a mile and more, which put 
him out of his path sadly; and, when he had got 
round, he came to the place called Stop. And 
there he stopped, and just in time. 

For he was on the edge of a vast hole in the 
bottom of the sea, up which was rushing and roar- 
ing clear steam enough to work all the engines in 
the world at once; so clear, indeed, that it was 
quite light at moments; and Tom could see almost 
up to the top of the water above, and down below 
into the pit for nobody knows how far. 

3. But, as soon as he bent his head over the 
edge, he got such a rap on the nose from pebbles, 
that he jumped back again; for the steam, as it 
rushed up, rasped away the sides of the hole, and 
hurled it up into the sea in a shower of mud and 
gravel and ashes; and then it spread all around, 
and sank again, and covered in the dead fish so fast 
that before Tom had stood there five minutes he 
was buried in silt up to his ankles, and began to be 
afraid that he should have been buried alive. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


123 


And perhaps lie would have been, but that while 
he was thinking, the whole piece of ground on 
which he stood was torn off and blown upward, and 
away flew Tom a mile up through the sea, wonder- 
ing what was coming next. 

4. At last he stopped — thump! and found him- 
self tight in the legs of the most wonderful bogy 
which he had ever seen. 

It had I don’t know how many wings, as big as 
the sails of a windmill, and spread out in a ring 
like them ; and with them it hovered over the steam 
which rushed up, as a ball hovers over the top of 
a fountain. And for every wing above it had a 
leg below, with a claw like a comb at the tip, and 
a nostril at the root; and in the middle it had no 
stomach and one eye; and as for its mouth, that 
was all on one side, as the madreporiform tubercle 
in a star-fish is. Well, it was a very strange beast; 
but no stranger than some dozens which you may 
see. 

What do you want here,” it cried peevishly, 
getting in my way? ” and it tried to drop Tom: 
but he held on tight to its claws, thinking himself 
safer where he was. 

5. So Tom told him who he was, and what his 
errand was. And the thing winked its one eye, 
and sneered: 


124 


THE WATER-BABIES 


I am too old to be taken in in that way. You 
are come after gold — I know you are.” 

Gold! What is gold? ” And really Tom did 
not know; but the suspicious old bogy would not 
believe him. 

But after a while Tom began to understand a 
little. For, as the vapors came up out of the hole, 
the bogy smelt them with his nostrils, and combed 
them and sorted them with his combs; and then, 
when they steamed up through them against his 
wings, they were changed into showers and streams 
of metal. From one wing fell gold-dust, and from 
another silver, and from another copper, and from 
another tin, and from another lead, and so on, and 
sank into the soft mud, into veins and cracks, and 
hardened there. Whereby it comes to pass that 
the rocks are full of metal. 

6. But, all of a sudden, somebody shut off the 
steam below, and the hole was left empty in an in- 
stant: and then down rushed the water into the 
hole, in such a whirlpool that the bogy spun round 
and round as fast as a teetotum. But that was all 
in his day’s work, like a fair fall with the hounds; 
so all he did was to say to Tom : 

]^ow is your time, youngster, to get down, if 
you are in earnest, which I don’t believe.” 

You’ll soon see,” said Tom; and away he 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


125 


went, as bold as Baron Munchausen,®^ and shot 
down the rushing cataract like a salmon at Balliso- 
dare. 

And, when he got to the bottom, he swam till he 
was washed on shore safe upon the Other-End-of- 
IN^o where; and he found it, to his surprise, as most 
other people do, much more like This-End-of-Some- 
• 'where than he had been in the habit of expecting. 

7. After innumerable adventures, each more 
wonderful than the last, he saw before him a huge 
building. 

Tom walked toward this great building, wonder- 
ing what it was, and having a strange fancy that he 
might find Mr. Grimes inside it, till he saw run- 
ning toward him, and shouting Stop! ’’ three or 
four people, who, when they came nearer, were 
nothing else than policemen’s truncheons,®® run- 
ning along without legs or arms. 

Tom was not astonished. Neither was he 
frightened; for he had been doing no harm. 

8. So he stopped; and, when the foremost 
truncheon came up and asked his business, he 
showed Mother Carey’s pass; and the truncheon 
looked at it in the oddest fashion; for he had one 

Baron Munchausen (1720-1797) : A Hanoverian soldier noted for 
his extravagant tales of adventure; to him were attributed the TaUs of 
Munchavsen, by their author, Rudolph Raspe. 

«8 Truncheons : Clubs. 


126 


THE WATER-BABIES 


eye in the middle of his upper end, so that when 
he looked at anything, being quite stiff, he had to 
slope himself, and poke himself, till it was a won- 
der why he did not tumble over; but, being quite 
full of the spirit of justice (as all policemen, and 
their truncheons, ought to be), he was always in a 
position of stable equilibrium, whichever way he 
put himself. 

All right — pass on,’’ said he at last. And 
then he added : I had better go with you, young 
man.” And Tom had no objection, for such com- 
pany was both respectable .and safe ; so the trunch- 
eon coiled its thong neatly round its handle, to 
jirevent tripping itself up — for the thong had got 
loose in running — and marched on by Tom’s side. 

Why have you no policeman to carry you ? ” 
asked Tom, after a while. 

9. Because we are not like those clumsy-made 
truncheons in the land-world, which cannot go 
without having a whole man to carry them about. 
We do our own work for ourselves; and do it very 
well, though I say it who should not.” 

Then why have vou a thong to your handle? ” 
asked Tom. 

To hang ourselves up by, of course, when we 
are off duty.” 

Tom had got his answer, and had no more to 


A FAIEY TALE FOR A LAND BABY 12 V 

say, till they came up to the great iron door of the 
prison. And there the truncheon knocked twice, 
with its own head. 

10. A wicket in the door opened, and out looked 
a tremendous old brass blunderbuss®® charged up 
to the muzzle with slugs, who was the porter; and 
Tom started back a little at the sight of him. 

What case is this? ’’ he asked in a deep voice, 
out of his broad bell mouth. 

If you please, sir, it is no case; only a young 
gentleman from her ladyship, who wants to see 
Grimes, the master-sweep.’’ 

Grimes?” said the blunderbuss. And he 
pulled in his muzzle, perhaps to look over his 
prison-lists. 

Grimes is up chimney IMo. 345,” he said from 
inside. So the young gentleman had better go 
on to the roof.” 

11. Tom looked up at the enormous wall, which 
seemed at least ninety miles high, and wondered 
how he should ever get up: but, when he hinted 
that to the truncheon, it settled the matter in a mo- 
ment. For it whisked round, and gave him such 
a shove behind as sent him up to the roof in no 
time, with his little dog under his arm. 

12. And there he walked along the leads, till 


Blunderbuss : An old-fashioned gun. 


128 


THE WATER-BABIES 


he met another truncheon, and told him his 
errand. 

^<Yery good/’ it said. Come along: but it 
will be of no use. He is the most unremorseful, 
hard-hearted, foul-mouthed fellow I have in 
charge; and thinks about nothing but beer and 
pipes, which are not allowed here, of course.” 

So they walked along over the leads, and very 
sooty they were, and Tom thought the chimneys 
must want sweeping very much. But he was sur- 
prised to see that the soot did not stick to his feet, 
or dirty them in the least. Neither did the live 
coals, which were lying about in. plenty, bum 
him. 

13. And at last they came to chimney No. 345. 
Out of the top of it, his head and shoulders just 
showing, stuck poor Mr. Grimes, so sooty, and 
bleared, and ugly, that Tom could hardly bear to 
look at him. And in his mouth was a pipe; but 
it was not a-light; though he was pulling at it with 
all his might. 

Attention, Mr. Grimes,” said the truncheon; 
here is a gentleman come to see you.” 

But Mr. Grimes only said bad words; and kept 
grumbling, My pipe won’t draw. My pipe won’t 
draw.” 

Keep a civil tongue, and attend ! ” said the 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 129 

truncheon; and popped up just like Punch/® hit- 
ting Grimes such a crack over the head with itself, 
that his brains rattled inside like a dried walnut in 
its shell. He tried to get his hands out, and rub 
the place: but he could not, for they were stuck 
fast in the chimney. Now he was forced to attend. 

14. Hey! ” he said, why, it’s Tom! I sup- 
pose you have come here to laugh at me, you spite- 
ful little atomy? ” 

Tom assured him he had not, but only wanted to 
help him. 

I don’t want anything except beer, and that I 
can’t get; and a light to this bothering pipe, and 
that I can’t get either.” 

“ I’ll get you one,” said Tom; and he took up a 
live coal (there were plenty lying about) and put 
it to Grimes’ pipe : but it went out instantly. 

It’s no use,” said the truncheon, leaning itself 
up against the chimney and looking on. I tell 
you, it is no use. His heart is so cold that it 
freezes everything that comes near him. You will 
see that presently, plain enough.” 

15. Oh, of course, it’s my fault. Everything’s 
always my fault,” said Grimes. Now don’t go 
to hit me again ” (for the truncheon started up- 


’o Punch : The clown of a puppet show. 
71 Atomy : An atom, a mite. 


130 


THE WATER-BABIES 


right, and looked very wicked) ; you know, if my 
arms were only free, you daren^t hit me then/’ 

The truncheon leant back against the chimney, 
and took no notice of the personal insult, like a 
well-trained policeman as it was, though he was 
ready enough to avenge any transgression against 
morality or order. 

But can’t I help you in any other way? Can’t 
I help you to get out of this chimney? ” said Tom. 

]^o,” interposed the truncheon; he has come 
to the place where everybody must help them- 
selves; and he will find it out, I hope, before he 
has done with me.” 

Oh, yes,” said Grimes, of course it’s me. 
Did I ask to be brought here into the prison ? Did 
I ask to be set to sweep your foul chimneys? Did 
I ask to have lighted straw put under me to make 
me go up ? Did I ask to stick fast in the very first 
chimney of all, because it was so shamefully 
clogged up with soot? Did I ask to stay here — I 
don’t know how long — a hundred years, I do be- 
lieve, and never get my pipe, nor my beer, nor 
nothing fit for a beast, let alone a man ? ” 

16. E^o,” answered a solemn voice behind. 

^^ 1^0 more did Tom, when you behaved to him in 
the very same way.” 

It was Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. And, when the 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


131 


trimclieon saw her, it started bolt upright — Atten- 
tion! — and made such a low bow that, if it had 
not been full of the spirit of justice, it must have 
tumbled on its end, and probably hurt its one eye. 
And Tom made his bow, too. 

17. Oh, ma’am,’’ he said, don’t think about 
me; that’s all past and gone, and good times and 
bad times and all times pass over. But may not I 
help poor Mr. Grimes? Mayn’t I try and get some 
of these bricks away, that he may move his arms? ” 

You may try, of course,” she said. 

So Tom pulled and tugged at the bricks: but he 
could not move one. And then he tried to wipe 
Mr. Grimes’ face: but the soot would not come off. 

Oh, dear! ” he said. have come all this 

way, through all these terrible places, to help you, 
and now I am of no use at all.” 

You had best leave me alone,” said Grimes; 
^^you are a good-natured forgiving little chap, and 
that’s truth; but you’d best be off. The hail’s 
coming on soon, and it will beat the eyes out of 
your little head.” 

AYhat hail? ” 

18. Why, hail that falls every evening here; 
and, till it comes close to me it’s like so much warm 
rain; but then it turns to hail over my head, and 
knocks me about like small shot.” 


132 


THE WATER-BABIES 


That hail will never come any more,” said the 
strange lady. I have told you before what it 
was. It was your mother’s tears, those which she 
shed when she prayed for you by her bedside ; but 
your cold heart froze it into hail. But she is gone 
to heaven now, and will weep no more for her 
graceless son.” 

Then Grimes was silent awhile; and then he 
looked very sad. 

So my old mother’s gone, and I never there to 
speak to her! Ah! a good woman she was, and 
might have been a happy one, in her little school 
there in Yendale, if it hadn’t been for me and my 
bad ways.” 

19. Did she keep the school in Yendale?” 
asked Tom. And then he told Grimes all the 
story of his going to her house, and how she could 
not abide the sight of a chimney-sweep, and then 
how kind she was, and how he turned into a water- 
baby. 

Ah ! ” said Grimes, good reason she had to 
hate the sight of a chimney-sweep. I ran away 
from her and took up with the sweeps, and never 
let her know where I was, nor sent her a penny to 
help her, and now it’s too late — too late ! said 
Mr. Grimes. 

And he began crying and blubbering like a great 


A FAIEY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


133 


baby, till bis pipe dropped out of his mouth, and 
broke all to bits. 

20. Oh, dear, if I was but a little chap in Ven- 
dale again, to see the clear beck, and the apple- 
orchard, and the yew-hedge, how different I would 
go on! But it’s too late now. So you go along, 
you kind little chap, and don’t stand to look at a 
man crying, that’s old enough to be your father, 
and never feared the face of man, nor of worse 
neither. But I’m beat now, and beat I must be. 
I’ve made my bed, and I must lie on it. Foul I 
would be, and foul I am, as an Irishwoman said to 
me once; and little I heeded it. It’s all my own 
fault: but it’s too late.” And he cried so bitterly 
that Tom began crying too. 

Hever too late,” said the fairy, in such a 
strange soft new voice that Tom looked up at her; 
and she was so beautiful for the moment that Tom 
half fancied she was her sister. 

21. 'No more was it too late. For, as poor 
Grimes cried and blubbered on, his own tears did 
what his mother’s could not do, and Tom’s could 
not do, and nobody’s on earth could do for him; 
for they washed the soot off his face and off his 
clothes; and then they washed the mortar away 
from between the bricks; and the chimney 
crumbled down ; and Grimes began to get out of it. 


134 


THE WATER-BABIES 


Up jumped the truncheon, and was going to hit 
him on the crown a tremendous thump, and drive 
him down again like a cork into a bottle. But the 
strange lady put it aside. 

Will you obey me if I give you a chance? ’’ 

As you please, ma’am. You’re stronger than 
me — that I know too well; and wiser than me, I 
know too well also. And, as for being my own 
master, I’ve fared ill enough with that as yet. So 
whatever your ladyship pleases to order me; for 
I’m heat, and that’s the truth.” 

22. Be it so then — you may come out. But 
remember, disobey me again, and into a worse 
place still you go.” 

I beg pardon, ma’am, but I never disobeyed 
you that I know of. I never had the honor of 
setting eyes upon you till I came to these ugly 
quarters.” 

ISTever saw me? Who said to you, Those that 
will be foul, foul they will be? ” 

Grimes looked up; and Tom looked up too; for 
the voice was that of the Irishwoman who met 
them the day that they went out together to Harth- 
over. I gave you your warning then: but you 
gave it yourself a thousand times before and since. 
Every bad word that you said — every cruel and 
mean thing that you did — every time that you got 


A FAIET TALE FOE A LAND-BABY 


135 


tipsy — every day that you went dirty — you were 
disobeying me, whether you knew it or notd’ 

“ If I’d only known, ma’am ” 

You knew well enough that you were disobey- 
ing something, though you did not know it was 
me. But come out and take your chance. Per- 
haps it may be your last.” 

23. So Grimes stepped out of the chimney, and 
really, if it had not been for the scars on his face, 
he looked as clean and respectable as a master- 
sweep need look. 

Take him away,” said she to the truncheon, 
and give him his ticket-of -leave.” 

And what is he to do, ma’am? ” 

Get him to sweep out the crater of Etna; he 
will find some very steady men working out their 
time there, who will teach him his business: but 
mind, if that crater gets choked again, and there is 
an earthquake in consequence, bring them all to 
me, and I shall investigate the case very se- 
verely.” 

So the truncheon marched off Mr. Grimes, look- 
ing as meek as a drowned worm. 

And for aught I know, or do not know, he is 
sweeping the crater of Etna to this very day. 

72 Ticket-of-Ieave : Permission granted a prisoner to go at large be- 
fore the end of his term on condition of good behavior. 


136 


THE WATER-BABIES 


And now/’ said the fairy to Tom, your work 
here is done. You may as well go back again.” 

I should be glad enough to go,” said Tom, 
but how am I to get up that great hole again, 
now the steam has stopped blowing ? ” 

I will take you up the backstairs : but I must 
bandage your eyes first; for I never allow anybody 
to see those backstairs of mine.” 

24. So she tied the bandage on his eyes with 
one hand, and with the other she took it off. 

• Yow,” she said, you are safe up the stairs.” 
Tom opened his eyes very wide, and his mouth too; 
for he had not, as he thought, moved a single step. 
But, when he looked round him, there could be no 
doubt that he was safe up the backstairs, whatso- 
ever they may be, which no man is going to tell 
you, for the plain reason that no man knows. 

The first thing which Tom saw was the black 
cedars, high and sharp against the rosy dawn; and 
St.Brandan’s Isle reflected double in the still, broad 
silver sea. The wind sang softly in the cedars, 
and the water sang among the caves : the sea-birds 
sang as they streamed out into the ocean, and the 
land-birds as they built among the boughs; and 
the air was so full of song that it stirred St. Bran- 
dan and his hermits, as they slumbered in the 
shade; and they moved their good old lips, and 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


137 


sang their morning hymn amid their dreams. But 
among all the songs one came across the water 
more sweet and clear than all; for it was the song 
of a young girFs voice. 

25. And what was the song which she sang? 
Ah, my little man, I am too old to sing that song, 
and you too young to understand it. But have 
patience, and keep your eye single, and your hands 
clean, and you will learn some day to sing it your- 
self, without needing any man to teach you. 

And as Tom neared the island, there sat upon a 
rock the most graceful creature that ever was seen, 
looking doAvn, with her chin upon her hand, and 
paddling with her feet in the water. And when 
they came to her she looked up, and behold it was 
Ellie. 

Oh, Miss Ellie,’^ said he, “ how you are 
grown! ’’ 

Oh, Tom,’’ said she, how you are grown 
too! ” 

And no wonder; they were both quite grown 
up — he into a tall man, and she into a beautiful 
woman. 

Perhaps I may be grown,” she said. I have 
had time enough; for I have been sitting here 
waiting for you many a hundred years, till I 
thought you were never coming.” 


138 


THE WATER-BABIES 


26 . Many a hundred years? thought Tom; 
but he had seen so much in his travels that he had 
quite given up being astonished; and, indeed, he 
could think of nothing but Ellie. So he stood and 
looked at Ellie, and Ellie looked at him; and they 
liked the employment so much that they stood and 
looked for seven years more, and neither spoke nor 
stirred. 

At last they heard the fairy say: Attention, 
children. Are you never going to look at me 
again?’’ 

We have been looking at you all this while,” 
they said. And so they thought they had been. 

Then look at me once more,” said she. 

They looked — and both of them cried out at 
once, Oh, who are you, after all? ” 

You are our dear Mrs. Doasyouwouldbe- 
doneby.” 

'Noy you are good Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid; 
but you are grown quite beautiful now! ” 

To you,” said the fairy. But look again.” 

You are Mother Carey,” said Tom, in a very 
low, solemn voice ; for he had found out something 
which made him very happy, and yet frightened 
him more than all that he had ever seen. 

But you are grown quite young again.” 

To you,” said the fairy. Look again.” 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 139 

You are the Irishwoman who met me the day 
I went to Harthover! 

And when they looked she was neither of them, 
and yet all of them at once. 

My name is written in my eyes, if you have 
eyes to see it there.’’ 

27. And they looked into her great, deep, soft 
eyes, and they changed again and again into every 
hue, as the light changes in a diamond. 

How read my name,” said she, at last. 

And her eyes flashed, for one moment, clear, 
white, blazing light: but the children could not 
read her name; for they were dazzled, and hid 
their faces in their hands. 

Hot yet, young things, not yet,” said she, 
smiling; and then she turned to Ellie. 

You may take him home with you now on 
Sundays, Ellie. He has won his spurs in the great 
battle, and become flt to go with you and be a 
man; because he has done the thing he did not 
like.” • 

And of course Tom married Ellie? ” 

My dear child, what a silly notion! Don’t you 
know that no one ever marries in a fairy tale, 
under the rank of a prince or a princess? 


140 


THE WATER-BABIES 


MORAL 

And now, my dear little man, what should we 
learn from this parable? 

We should learn thirty-seven or thirty-nine 
things, I am not exactly sure which: but one 
thing, at least, we may learn, and that is this — 
when we see efts in the pond, never to throw stones 
at them, or catch them with crooked pins, or put 
them into vivariums with sticklebacks, that the 
sticklebacks may prick them in their poor little 
stomachs, and make them jump out of the glass 
into somebody’s work-box, and so come to a bad 
end. For these efts are nothing else but the water- 
babies who are stupid and dirty, and will not learn 
their lessons and keep themselves clean ; and, there- 
fore (as comparative anatomists will tell you fifty 
years hence, though they are not learned enough 
to tell you now), their skulls grow fiat, their jaws 
grow out, and their brains grow small, and their 
tails grow long, and they lose all their ribs (which 
I am sure you would not like to do), and their 
skins grow dirty and spotted, and they never get 
into the clear rivers, much less into the great wide 
sea, but hang about in dirty ponds, and live in the 
mud, and eat worms, as they deserve to do. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 


141 


But that is no reason why you should ill-use 
them : but only why you should pity them, and be 
kind to them, and hope that some day they will 
wake up, and be ashamed of their nasty, dirty, lazy, 
stupid life, and try to amend, and become some- 
thing better once more. For, perhaps, if they do 
so, then after 379,423 years, nine months, thirteen 
days, two hours, and twenty-one minutes (for 
aught that appears to the contrary), if they work 
very hard and wash very hard all that time, their 
brains may grow bigger, and their jaws grow 
smaller, and their ribs come back, and their tails 
wither off, and they will turn into water-babies 
again, and perhaps after that into land-babies; and 
after that perhaps into grown men. 

You know they won’t? Very well, I dare say 
you know best. But you see, some folks have a 
great liking for those poor little efts. They never 
did anybody any harm, or could if they tried; and 
their only fault is, that they do no good — any more 
than some thousands of their betters. But what 
with ducks, and what with pike, and what with 
sticklebacks, and what with water-beetles, and 
what with naughty boys, they are sae sair hadden 
doun,” as the Scotsmen say, that it is a wonder 
how they live; and some folks can’t help hoping, 
with good Bishop Butler, that they may have an- 


142 


THE WATER-BABIES 


other chance, to make things fair and even, some- 
where, somewhen, somehow. 

Meanwhile, do you learn your lessons, and thank 
God that you have plenty of cold water to wash 
in; and wash in it too, like a true Englishman, 
And then, if my story is not true, something bet- 
ter is; and if I am not quite right, still you will 
be, as long as you stick to hard work and cold 
water. 

But remember always, as I told you at first, that 
this is all a fairy tale, and only fun and pretense; 
and, therefore, you are not to believe a word of it, 
even if it is true. 


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